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ADDING  YEARS 
TO  YOUR  LIFE 


BOOKS  BY  HENRY  SMITH  WILLIAMS 

THE    STORY    OF    NINETEENTH     CENTURY 
SCIENCE.    Harper  &  Bros.,  1900. 
"  He  must  have  a  dull  mind  indeed  who  can  read 
this  book  without  fascination."— Christian  Register. 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  ART   OF   WRITING. 
(Four  massive   portfolios   with  200   facsimiles 
in  tone  and  color.) 

"One  of   the   most  superb   examples   of   book- 
making  in  America  since  Audubon's  masterpiece." 

Rupert  Hughes  in  the  Marconigram. 

THE  HISTORIANS'  HISTORY  OF  THE 
WORLD:  A  Comprehensive  Narrative  of  the 
Rise  and  development  of  Nations.  (25  vols. 
with  about  3,000  illustrations.)  Edited  with 
the  collaboration  of  many  specialists,  European 
and  American. 

"A  work  of  epoch-making  importance  compar- 
able in  scholarship  and  authority  to  La  Grande 
Encyclopedic,   the    Dictionary   of    National    Biog- 
raphy, the  New  English  Dictionary,  and  the  En- 
cyclopcedia  Britannica." — The  Times,  London. 
A  HISTORY  OF  SCIENCE.     (5  vols.,  fully  illus- 
trated.)    Harper  &  Bros.,  1904. 
"At  once  a  source  of  information  and  an  in- 
spiration."— Prof.  Louis  G.  Nolte. 
ALCOHOL:    How   it  Affects   the   Individual,    the 
Community,  and  the  Race.  The  Century  Co.,  1909. 
"  By  your  clear  and  dispassionate  presentation 
of  this  subject  you  have  earned  the  respect  and 
gratitude  of  a  generation,  and  have  done  the  good 
of  an  average  life  time." — Letter  to  the  Author. 
EVERY-DAY    SCIENCE:    The    Story    of    Man's 
Application    of    Organized    Knowledge    to    the 
Needs  of  Practical  Life.     (11  vols.,  fully  illus- 
trated.)    The  Goodhue  Co.,  1909. 
THE   WONDERS    OF    SCIENCE    IN    MODERN 
LIFE.     (10  vols.,  fully  illustrated.)      Funk  & 
Wagnalls  Co.,  1912. 

MIRACLES  OF  SCIENCE.     Harper  &  Bros.,  1913. 

THE    SCIENCE    OF    HAPPINESS.     Harper    & 

Bros.,  1909.    New  edition,  The  Goodhue  Co.,  1913. 

THE  WORK  AND  METHODS  OF  LUTHER 

BURBANK.     (12  vols.,  with  1,260  illustrations 

m    color.)      Edited    for    The    Luther    Burbank 

Society,  of  whose  publications  Dr.  Williams  is 

Editor-in-Chief.    In  press. 


A  series  of  simple  but  highly  effective  gymnastics  aimed  at 
all-around  development  of  the  abdominal  muscles 


Adding  Years 
To  Your  Life 


By 


Henry  Smith  Williams,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

Author  of  "  A  History  of  Science,"  "  The 

Science  of  Happiness,"  "  The  Effect  of 

Alcohol,"  etc. 


Illustrated 


Hearst's  International  Library  Co. 
New  York  MCMXIV 


Copyright,  1912,  1913,  by 
INTERNATIONAL  MAGAZINE  Co. 

Copyright,  1914,  by 
HEARST'S  INTERNATIONAL  LIBRARY  Co.,  INC. 


All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of  translation 
into  foreign  languages,  including  the  Scandinavian 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     THE  DUEL  WITH  OLD  AGE    "...  15 

II    THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MICROBES     .       .  40 

III  MESSENGERS  OF  DEATH  AND  How  TO 

OUTWIT  THEM 71 

IV  Is  YOUR  BRAIN  ALL  BIGHT?         .        .  93 
V    ARE  YOUR  NERVES  IN  TUNE  ?  .        .        .  117 

VI    CAN  You  SEE  STRAIGHT?      .       .       .153 

VII    Do  You  CHOOSE  YOUR  CHILDREN  ?       .  181 

VIII    GIVE  YOUR  CHILDREN  A  CHANCE  .        .  213 

IX    ADDING  YEARS  TO  YOUR  LIFE  .            .  245 

INDEX  277 


2052697 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  series  of  simple  but  highly  effective  gym- 
nastics aimed  at  all-around  development 
of  the  abdominal  muscles  .  .  Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

The  milk  supply  is  everywhere  under  sur- 
veillance of  health  boards  nowadays  .  66 

Four  of  the  best  known  scientists   .       .       .     204 

Determining  the  mental  age  of  a  child  by  the 
application  of  the  Binet-Simon  and 
Sequin  tests 224 

The  opportunities  for  outdoor  life  for  chil- 
dren have  now  been  extended  to  school 
hours  in  some  places  .  .  .  240 

Dr.  Bishop  using  the  sphygmograph  to  ascer- 
tain the  quality  of  the  heartbeats  .  .  256 


ADDING  YEARS 
TO  YOUR  LIFE 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age 

GROWING  old  and  dying  seem  futile  perform- 
ances, when  you  stop  to  think  of  the  matter. 

Just  why  a  man  who  has  lived  in  unvarying 
health  and  strength  for,  say,  thirty  years  should 
not  continue  to  do  so  for  three  hundred  or  three 
thousand  years  is  not  intrinsically  obvious.  Cer- 
tain enthusiasts  have  all  along  contended  that 
he  could  do  so  if  only  he  could  find  out  just  how 
the  trick  was  to  be  accomplished. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  this  idea  seemed  so  self- 
evident  that  no  one  thought  of  doubting  it.  So 
hosts  of  men  of  talent  gave  their  lives  to  the  quest 
of  the  philosopher's  stone. 

Then  there  were  men  of  another  cast  of  mind 
who  believed  that  the  special  elixir  of  life  must 
be  a  product  of  nature  herself  rather  than  of  the 
laboratory,  and  who  sought  the  beneficent  foun- 
tain of  eternal  youth  in  far-off  regions  of  the 
world.  Foremost  among  these  adventurers,  as 
every  schoolboy  will  recall,  was  Ponce  de  Leon, 
who  sought — but  failed  to  find — -the  beneficent 
spring  in  Florida. 

In  our  day  the  problem  has  been  attacked  from 
many  angles.  There  are  no  unexplored  lands  to 
search  out,  and  at  last  we  are  forced  to  believe 

15 


!6  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

that  nature  has  nowhere  supplied  a  spring  of 
eternal  youth.  But  there  are  still  workers  in  the 
laboratory  who  believe  that  the  dream  of  the 
alchemists  was  not  a  hopeless  one,  and  who  are 
attempting  to  apply  the  new  knowledge  of  modern 
science  to  the  old  familiar  quest. 

Metchnikoff,  Seeker  After  Eternal  Youth 

The  Ponce  de  Leon  of  our  day  is  Professor  Elie 
Metchnikoff,  of  the  Pasteur  Institute  in  Paris. 
Professor  Metchnikoff  gained  world-wide  fame 
some  twenty-five  years  ago  through  his  researches 
on  the  white  blood-corpuscles.  He  proved  that 
these  little  organisms  in  the  blood  have  the  func- 
tion of  destroying  bacteria  and  thus  of  helping 
man  to  preserve  his  health.  This  demonstration 
prepared  the  way  for  much  of  the  later  progress 
of  preventive  medicine.  It  also  suggested  to  Pro- 
fessor Metchnikoff  himself  problems  having  to  do 
with  the  life  and  death  of  human  tissues  that  have 
been  the  stimulus  for  all  his  more  recent  work. 
Latterly  this  work  has  focused  specifically  on  one 
subject,  the  conquest  of  old  age.  The  savant  him- 
self believes  that  he  has  at  last  partially  solved 
the  problem. 

A  beginning  in  this  direction  was  made  by  Pro- 
fessor Metchnikoff  some  years  ago  when  he  ob- 
served that  the  peasants  of  Bulgaria  appeared 
to  be  a  very  long-lived  race.  Metchnikoff  noted 
that  the  peasants  in  question  lived  largely  on  a 
diet  of  sour  milk.  He  associated  this  custom  with 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  17 

the  observed  longevity  and  sought  for  the  con- 
nection. Milk  sours  because  of  the  presence  of 
certain  microbes  called  lactic-acid  bacilli.  Hence 
sour  milk  contains  a  large  quantity  of  these 
minute  organisms.  Tracing  the  history  of  these 
bacilli  when  taken  into  the  stomach,  Metchnikoff 
found  that  they  live  and  proliferate  in  the  intes- 
tinal canal,  and  there  tend  to  neutralize  certain 
poisons  that  are  deleterious  to  the  human  system 
if  absorbed. 

Acting  on  these  observations,  Metchnikoff  in- 
troduced a  sour-milk  treatment  which  has  been 
extensively  employed  by  physicians  all  over  the 
world.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the 
results  of  this  treatment  have  not  been  convincing 
to  the  mass  of  the  profession. 


Glycobacterium — Bacillus  of  Long  Life 

Metchnikoff  himself  has  felt  that  the  lactic-acid 
bacillus  was  hampered  in  its  beneficial  activities 
by  the  lack  of  food  suited  to  its  needs  to  be  found 
normally  in  the  intestinal  tract.  So  he  sought  a 
means  of  remedying  this  difficulty.  Very  recently 
a  clue  was  given  by  the  discovery,  made  by  M. 
Woolman,  a  fellow-worker  at  the  Pasteur  Insti- 
tute, of  a  bacillus  which  can  generate  sugar,  and 
which  has  been  given  the  name ' '  glycobacterium. ' ' 

This  newly  discovered  organism  was  found  in 
the  intestinal  tract  of  the  dog,  but  it  may  be  cul- 
tivated in  the  laboratory  and  made  to  colonize  in 
the  human  system. 


i8  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

The  advantage  of  such  colonization  is,  accord- 
ing to  Professor  Metchnikoff,  that  by  supplying 
food  for  the  lactic-acid  bacilli,  the  glycobacteria 
will  be  instrumental  in  enabling  those  organisms 
to  carry  out  their  useful  functions  of  neutralizing 
the  so-called  indols  and  phenols,  the  presence  of 
which  in  the  intestinal  tract  is  believed  to  be 
so  deleterious  to  the  organism. 

It  will  be  obvious  that  the  real  utility  of  the 
glycobacteria  in  performing  this  highly  desirable 
function  can  be  determined  experimentally  only 
after  many  years  of  trial.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  cannot  be  supposed  that  a  scientist  of  Pro- 
fessor Metchnikoff 's  reputation  makes  any  con- 
clusions without  a  good  many  facts  or  valid  theo- 
ries to  give  them  support.  Let  us  inquire,  then, 
very  briefly,  as  to  the  grounds  on  which  Professor 
Metchnikoff 's  belief  that  he  is  on  the  track  of  the 
philosopher's  stone  is  based. 

Professor  Metchnikoff 's  chief  efforts,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  aimed  against  certain  poisons  that 
are  generated  in  the  intestinal  tract. 

There  is  no  question  that  these  poisons  are  actu- 
ally generated  there,  and  that  they  are  capable  of 
absorption  into  the  system  and  of  producing  dele- 
terious effects.  In  a  crude  general  way  this  has 
been  familiar  knowledge  of  medical  men  from  the 
earliest  times ;  though  it  remained  for  the  physio- 
logical chemist  of  our  time  to  test  and  classify  and 
name  the  poisons. 

It  is  recorded  that  the  medieval  alchemist- 
physician,  Paracelsus,  believed  that  all  foods  con- 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  19 

tain  elements  of  poison,  and  that  it  is  the  function 
of  the  gastric  juice  to  act  as  an  alchemist,  trans- 
forming the  poisons  into  wholesome  products. 
With  a  little  latitude  of  interpretation,  the  idea 
is  not  far  wrong.  All  foods  do  contain  elements 
that,  if  not  properly  compounded,  would  be  poison- 
ous to  the  system.  The  chief  universal  elements 
that  enter  into  foodstuffs  are  carbon,  hydrogen, 
oxygen,  and  nitrogen. 

Properly  compounded,  these  are  not  only  whole- 
some, they  are  absolutely  indispensable ;  but  if  you 
break  up  the  molecules  of,  let  us  say,  meat  or  bread 
into  their  elements,  you  may  have  a  variety  of 
poisons. 

Thus  carbon  unites  with  oxygen  to  form  the 
poisonous  carbonic  acid  gas,  which  if  not  immedi- 
ately thrown  off  by  the  lungs,  suffocates  or  as- 
phyxiates the  cells  in  general  and  causes  death. 
Similarly  oxidized,  the  nitrogen  and  carbon  and 
hydrogen  elements  of  the  food-molecule  may  form, 
and  constantly  do  form,  in  the  system  urea  and 
uric-acid  compounds  that,  if  not  immediately  elim- 
inated by  way  of  the  kidneys,  produce  stupor  and 
death  with  equal  certainty.  These  are  familiar 
facts  of  elementary  physiology. 

But  does  it  not  seem  probable  that  elimination 
of  these  poisons  is  sometimes  only  partially  per- 
formed? Every  physician  knows  that  such  is  the 
case.  A  whole  coterie  of  diseases  are  of  such 
recognized  origin. 

May  it  not  be  true,  then,  that  a  slow  poisoning 
occasioned  by  partially  retained  organic  com- 


20  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

pounds  is  the  cause  of  that  gradual  decay  which 
leads  to  senility  and  death? 

To  this  question  Metchnikoff  answers  unequivo- 
cally, Yes.  He  believes  that  auto-intoxication, 
through  the  acumulation  in  the  system  of  waste 
products,  is  very  largely  responsible  for  the  fact 
that  tissues  in  the  body  gradually  lose  their  power 
of  normal  reproduction  and  ultimately  functionate 
so  feebly  as  to  cause  the  individual  to  become 
senile  and  to  die. 


Single-celled  Organisms  Never  Die 

The  original  conception  that  probably  put  Pro- 
fessor Metchnikoff  on  the  track  of  this  idea  was 
the  theory  of  Professor  Weismann,  according  to 
which  single-celled  organisms  (so-called  infuso- 
rians  or  protozoans)  never  die  a  normal  death. 
The  idea  is  startling,  but  simple  enough  when  we 
consider  the  conditions.  If  you  observe  a  proto- 
zoan under  the  microscope  you  will  see  a  trans- 
lucent particle  of  protoplasm  which  moves  about, 
seemingly  responds  to  stimuli  (as  from  coming  in 
contact  with  other  objects),  absorbs  certain  par- 
ticles by  way  of  food,  and  excretes  such  portions 
of  the  food  as  are  not  to  its  liking. 

The  bit  of  protoplasm  will  be  observed  to  grow 
until  it  attains  a  fairly  definite  maximum  size. 

Then  it  will  become  constricted  at  the  middle, 
presently  dividing  into  two  bits  of  protoplasm 
each  of  which  is  precisely  like  the  original  in 
quality  and  activities,  but  of  half  size. 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  21 

Each  of  the  new  protozoa  will  re-enact  the  life 
of  the  parent  of  whose  divided  body  they  are  com- 
posed. Each  will  feed  and  grow  and  presently 
divide  to  constitute  two  offspring.  As  the  process 
of  growth  and  so-called  reproducton  by  fission 
requires  only  a  few  hours,  there  will  be  succes- 
sively two,  four,  eight,  sixteen,  thirty-two,  sixty- 
four  protozoa  where  at  first  there  was  only  one. 
And  this  process  continuing,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
progeny  of  the  original  protozoan  increase  in  geo- 
metrical ratio,  until  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks 
they  will  number — as  anyone  who  chooses  to  make 
the  successive  multiplications  can  prove — thou- 
sands, millions,  billions,  of  individuals. 

If  nothing  interfered  with  their  growth,  there 
might  be  tons  of  them  in  a  few  weeks. 

Meantime  what  has  become  of  the  original  pro- 
tozoan! It  is  rather  curious  to  reflect  on  the  suc- 
cessive divisions  of  the  fleck  of  matter  that  com- 
posed it.  The  entire  body  of  the  protozoan,  it  will 
be  recalled,  divided  to  produce  two  protozoa. 
These  offspring,  then,  are  not  merely  children  of 
the  original  protozoan;  they  together  constitute 
the  total  bulk  and  personality  of  the  original 
organism. 

And  so  with  each  successive  generation.  The 
parent  organism  is  larger  but  no  older  than  its 
two  offspring;  and,  extending  the  idea  all  along 
the  line,  it  would  seem  that,  of  the  myriads  of 
protozoans,  those  of  the  last  generation  represent 
merely  the  divided  personality  of  the  first  proto- 
zoan, and  are  as  old  as  their  original  ancestor. 


33  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

The  thing  sounds  paradoxical  when  phrased  in 
just  that  way,  yet  it  seems  to  express  the  fact. 

Stated  otherwise,  it  appears  that  the  protozoan 
never  dies,  but,  barring  accidents,  is  perpetuated 
throughout  the  ages  in  an  unending  series  of  de- 
scendants that  represent  not  offspring  so  much 
as  a  continuity  of  its  own  person. 

This  idea  of  the  "  potential  immortality  "  of 
the  single-celled  organism,  as  Weismann  phrased 
it,  took  instant  possession  of  the  biological  world, 
and  led  to  renewed  questioning  as  to  why  the  cells 
should  lose  this  capacity  for  immortality  when 
they  chanced  to  be  built  together  into  the  organ- 
ism of  a  higher  animal. 

The  matter  seemed  so  important,  that  it  was 
presently  put  to  tests,  to  establish  whether  the 
protozoan  really  is  immortal  as  Weismann 
thought.  Some  of  these  experiments  were  discon- 
certing. Professor  Maupas  studied  a  particular 
type  of  protozoan,  carefully  isolating  one  indi- 
vidual out  of  each  successive  generation,  and  he 
found  that  a  time  came,  after  two  or  three 
hundred  generations,  when  the  individual  proto- 
zoa seemed  to  deteriorate  in  size,  to  lose  their 
power  of  reproduction,  and  to  die. 

This  seemed  to  suggest  that  mortality  is  really 
inherent  in  the  cell,  and  that  old  age  and  death 
are  inevitable  for  single-celled  and  many-celled 
animals  alike. 

But  many  biologists  refused  to  consider  these 
experiments  as  demonstrative.  There  were  some 
who  believed  that  the  decadence  of  Professor 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  23 

Maupas'  protozoans  was  due  to  the  development 
of  unfavorable  conditions  in  the  course  of  the 
experiment.  Further  observations  proved  that 
this  was  correct.  Renewed  experiments,  in  par- 
ticular those  of  Enriquez,  Woodruff,  and  Pro- 
fessor H.  S.  Jennings,  of  Johns  Hopkins,  demon- 
strated that  if  the  food  supply  is  properly 
adjusted  and  the  waste  products  are  properly 
removed  from  the  medium  in  which  the  protozoan 
lives,  a  strain  of  protozoa  may  be  kept  in  perfect 
health,  without  showing  the  slightest  tendency  to 
degenerate,  for  thousands  of  generations,  and  pre- 
sumably for  an  indefinite  period. 

So  the  idea  that  the  normal  single-celled  organ- 
ism is  potentially  immortal,  and  never  comes  to  its 
end  except  through  violence,  or  what  may  be 
termed  disease,  seemed  experimentally  estab- 
lished. And  the  fact  that  protozoans  under  un- 
favorable conditions  develop  disease  and  die 
seemed  to  give  renewed  color  to  the  idea  that  the 
many-celled  animals,  including  man,  owe  their 
mortality  to  the  development  of  unfavorable  con- 
ditions, rather  than  to  any  innate  propensity  to 
die. 

The  Application  to  Man 

Clearly  to  understand  the  logic  of  this  at- 
tempted applicaton  of  the  life  history  of  the 
protozoan  to  the  human  organism,  we  must  bear 
in  mind  that  every  animal  body,  including  that 
of  man,  is  built  up  exclusively  of  cells  that  by 


24  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

themselves  are  not  very  different  from  the  bit  of 
protoplasm  that  constitutes  the  body  of  the 
protozoan. 

It  is  an  old  axiom  of  physiology  that  all  life 
comes  from  an  egg.  The  original  egg  from  which 
a  human  body  develops  is  a  miscroscopic  bit  of 
protoplasm  which  the  casual  observer  would  not 
very  sharply  distinguish  from  a  protozoan.  Like 
the  protozoan,  this  divides  presently  into  two  cells, 
and  then  in  succession  into  four,  eight,  sixteen, 
and  so  on  indefinitely. 

But,  unlike  the  offspring  of  the  protozoan,  the 
new  cells  of  the  successive  divisons  of  the  human 
embryo  do  not  scatter  in  all  directions  and  take 
up  individual  existences.  They  remain  clinging 
together  and  form  a  larger  and  larger  cluster. 
Presently  some  of  them  assume  different  shapes 
from  others,  though  all  sprang  from  the  same 
parent.  In  time  some  of  their  descendants  are 
grouped  into  clusters  that  we  call  muscles ;  others 
into  structures  we  call  bones,  and  the  like. 

All  these  structures,  it  must  be  recalled,  are 
direct  descendants  of  the  original  egg-cell,  and  in 
the  main  they  retain  the  primitive  function  of 
taking  in  nourishment,  growing,  and  excreting 
waste  products. 

But  inasmuch  as  the  various  groups  of  cells 
thus  piled  together  to  form  organs  are  necessarily 
shut  off  from  direct  contact  with  the  medium 
from  which  they  absorb  foodstuffs,  it  has  become 
necessary  to  build  up,  with  the  aid  of  other  cells, 
channels  of  communication  through  which  the 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  25 

foodstuffs  may  be  distributed.  Thus  the  tubular 
structures  known  as  the  intestinal  tract,  the  blood- 
vessels, lacteals,  and  lymphatics,  bronchial  tubes, 
and  glands,  and  kidneys  and  perspiratory  ap- 
paratus, have  been  developed. 

All  these  are  merely  accessory  mechanisms  to 
enable  the  remote  cells  of  the  body  to  gain  a  food 
supply  and  to  rid  themselves  of  waste  products. 

The  human  body,  then,  may  be  closely  likened, 
in  comparison  with  the  protozoans,  with  the 
human  population  of  a  city  as  contrasted  with  a 
lone  hermit  in  the  country.  The  lone  hermit,  like 
the  protozoan,  lives  in  direct  contact  with  the 
medium  from  which  his  foodstuffs  are  obtained. 
He  personally  performs  all  the  labor  necessary 
to  his  own  maintenance. 

But  the  city  dweller,  like  the  gregarious  cell  of 
the  developed  body,  is  a  specialist,  performing 
one  or  another  type  of  labor  and  depending  on 
other  specialists  for  the  performance  of  other 
necessary  types.  Some  are  day  laborers,  com- 
parable to  muscle  cells;  some  are  professional 
workers,  comparable  to  brain  cells;  some  are  en- 
gaged in  bringing  in  food  products;  others  in 
the  removal  of  waste  products. 

Similarly  the  houses  are  of  necessity  con- 
structed with  streets  between  them  to  serve  as 
channels  through  which  the  food  products  may 
be  brought  in  and  the  waste  products  removed. 

A  city  without  these  channels  of  communica- 
tion would  be  as  hopeless  a  proposition  as  a 
human  body  without  mouth  or  lungs. 


26  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Is  Mortality  the  Price  of  Differentiation? 

Let  us  bear  this  comparison  between  the  human 
body  and  the  city  population  in  mind  and  extend 
a  little  further  our  reasoning  from  the  life  his- 
tory of  the  protozoans. 

Many  of  the  most  thoughtful  of  biologists  who 
have  noted  the  potential  immortality  of  the  pro- 
tozoan— and  the  number  includes  Professor  Jen- 
nings, whose  experiments  were  just  referred  to — 
are  clearly  of  opinion  that  when  the  cells  aggre- 
gate together  to  form  a  single  body,  instead  of 
scattering  individually,  as  do  the  successive 
generations  of  protozoa,  they  create  artificial 
conditions  that  make  indefinite  existence  impos- 
sible. 

Just  as  Professor  Maupas'  protozoa  presently 
degenerated  and  died  because  the  experimenter 
had  failed  to  maintain  ideal  conditions  of  food 
supply  and  of  the  removal  of  waste  products,  so, 
according  to  these  opinions,  it  is  intrinsically 
impossible  in  such  a  vast  colony  of  cells  as  that 
making  up  the  human  body,  to  maintain  the  ideal 
conditions  of  food-supply  and  waste-removal 
that  are  essential  to  maintenance  of  perpetual 
health  of  the  individual  cells,  and  hence  to  peren- 
nial youth  and  immortal  life  for  the  individual 
organism. 

These  objectors  argue  that  there  can  be  no 
great  gain  without  some  attendant  loss.  The 
clustering  of  cells  together  to  form  a  differen- 
tiated body  makes  possible  all  the  gains  that  lie 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  27 

between  the  life  of  a  protozoan  and  the  life  of  a 
man.  The  loss  involved  is  that  of  the  primal 
capacity  of  the  protoplasmic  cell  to  live  in- 
definitely. 

"  The  higher  diversified  life  is  purchased  at 
the  price  of  ultimate  death." 

According  to  this  view,  which  is  put  forward 
prominently  by  Professor  Sedgwick  Minot,  of 
Harvard,  it  is  intrinsically  impossible  that  such 
a  vast  colony  of  cells  as  that  making  up  the  human 
body  should  maintain  the  ideal  conditions  of  food- 
supply  and  waste-removal  that  are  essential  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  perpetual  health  of  the 
individual  cells,  and  hence  to  perennial  youth  and 
immortal  life  for  the  aggregate  body  of  cells 
called  a  human  being. 

Thus,  says  Professor  H.  S.  Jennings,  in  inter- 
preting the  theory,  "  Age  and  death,  though  not 
inherent  in  life  itself,  are  inherent  in  the  differen- 
tiation that  makes  life  worth  living." 

Now  it  is  obvious  that  if  this  view  of  the  matter 
is  correct,  the  modern  scientific  quest  of  the 
philosopher's  stone  is  as  chimerical  an  undertak- 
ing as  the  voyaging  of  a  Ponce  de  Leon. 

But  is  this  assumption  necessarily  valid?  Is 
it  not  a  little  like  saying  that  the  necessary  penalty 
of  combining  human  habitations  into  cities  is  the 
defective  feeding  of  the  population,  defective 
sanitation,  and  the  attendant  prevalence  of  dis- 
ease and  early  average  mortality? 

Such  were  indeed  the  penalties  of  city  life 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages  and  until  compara- 


28  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

tively  recent  times.  The  water  supply  of  most 
cities  was  defective  and  contaminated;  the 
methods  of  bringing  food  were  crude  and  subject 
to  interruption;  garbage  and  refuse  were  habit- 
ually thrown  into  the  streets  to  become  a  source 
of  contamination  of  the  air  and  the  breeding  of 
pestilence.  Infant  mortality  was  appalling; 
plagues  and  epidemics  were  of  perpetual  recur- 
rence; and  it  was  necessary  constantly  to 
replenish  the  city  population  from  the  country, 
or  the  race  of  city  dwellers  would  have  died  out 
altogether. 

But  all  this  has  been  changed  in  our  day. 

Now,  as  everybody  knows,  life  is  nowhere  more 
healthful  than  in  our  large  cities.  Nowhere  else 
is  the  water  supply  in  general  purer;  nowhere 
else  does  one  find  better  food  supplied  in  more 
abundant  quantity ;  nowhere  else  are  the  sanitary 
conditions  so  good,  and  the  systems  of  removing 
waste  products  so  hygienic  and  so  effective.  As 
a  consequence,  nowhere  else  is  the  general  health 
better  or  the  mortality  rate  lower  than  in  our 
well-managed  cities.  The  death  rate  in  New  York 
City  is  lower  than  in  New  York  State  outside  the 
city. 

And  all  this  has  been  brought  about  in  defiance 
of  what  seemed  to  our  forefathers  necessary  con- 
ditions deleterious  to  health  and  longevity  inci- 
dent to  the  very  nature  of  city  life. 

^And  so  the  question  naturally  arises,  may  not 
biologists  of  to-day  be  similarly  in  error  when 
they  declare  it  impossible  that  the  conditions  of 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  29 

life  for  the  cells  of  the  human  body  should  be 
made  so  healthful  as  to  give  the  cells  a  chance 
for  indefinite  longevity! 


Growing  Tissues  Outside  the  Body 

Only  the  experiments  of  the  future  can  deter- 
mine the  matter.  But  it  seems  to  lie  within  the 
possibilities,  in  view  of  the  biological  facts  just 
quoted,  that  the  thing  might  ultimately  be  accom- 
plished. In  other  words,  it  seems  a  justifiable 
conclusion  from  the  observed  facts,  that  there  is 
no  necessary  limit  to  the  activities  of  the  aggre- 
gation of  matter  that  we  call  protoplasm. 

It  seems  a  fair  inference  that  if  we  could  make 
the  conditions  in  a  human  body  so  ideal  that  every 
cell  to  the  remotest  tissue  should  be  bathed  in  a 
medium  of  blood  and  lymph  containing  just  the 
right  proportions  of  food  in  just  the  needed  quan- 
tity, and  supplying  also  ideal  conditions  for  the 
removal  of  waste  products,  we  should  have  an 
organism  that  would  live  on  indefinitely. 

That  this  inference  is  obviously  in  accord  with 
the  traditions  of  the  alchemist  is  of  no  particular 
significance  one  way  or  the  other.  That  it  gives 
support  to  the  hopes  and  dreams  of  such  inves- 
tigators as  Professor  Metchnikoff,  is  a  matter  of 
greater  moment. 

A  review  of  the  conditions  as  thus  presented, 
however,  will  make  it  clear,  I  think,  to  any 
thoughtful  reader  that  there  is  no  probability 
whatever  that  any  single  discovery,  such  as  Pro- 


30  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

fessor  Metchnikoff's  discovery  of  the  function  of 
the  glycobacterium,  can  by  itself  result  in  accom- 
plishing the  feat  of  giving  the  body  eternal  youth. 
Whatever  the  importance  of  the  waste  products 
in  the  intestinal  tract,  which  the  glycobacterium 
is  expected  to  neutralize,  it  would  be  absurd  to 
suppose  that  they  are  all-important. 

There  are  questions  of  food  supply,  and  of 
elimination  of  waste  products  through  other  chan- 
nels, that  must  obviously  have  consideration. 

Until  these  are  solved,  we  shall  have  taken  only 
the  first  step  in  the  direction  of  maintenance  of 
perennial  youth. 

Fortunately  we  may  record  that  just  at  the 
moment  there  are  new  possibilities  opening  up 
to  the  scientific  investigator  in  this  field,  that  are 
of  quite  a  different  order  from  any  hitherto  avail- 
able. This  grows  out  of  the  extraordinary  experi- 
ments in  the  cultivation  of  living  tissues  outside 
the  body  that  have  been  carried  out  in  recent 
months  by  Drs.  Carrel  and  Burrows,  at  the 
Rockefeller  Institute  in  New  York. 

These  experimenters  cut  fragments  of  tissue 
from  the  dead  body  of  a  chicken,  or  dog,  or  other 
animal,  and  by  supplying  these  tissues  with  a 
proper  medium,  cause  them  to  live  and  grow  in 
glass  receptacles,  keeping  up  cell-growth  and 
cell-division  as  if  they  were  still  a  part  of  the 
original  parent  organism. 

In  order  to  keep  the  tissues  alive  for  long 
periods,  however,  it  is  necessary,  as  might  be 
expected,  not  only  to  supply  a  medium  having 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  31 

proper  food  qualities,  but  also  to  change  this 
medium  from  time  to  time,  in  order  that  the  waste 
products  may  be  removed.  In  other  words,  the 
conditions  for  these  fragments  of  tissue  outside 
the  body  are  precisely  those  that  obtain  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  protozoans.  The  same  essential 
elements  of  pure  food  and  complete  elimination  of 
waste  products  must  be  fulfilled  in  order  to  main- 
tain the  life  and  health  of  the  cell.  Thus  it  is 
demonstrated  that  the  individual  tissues  of  the 
body  do  not  necessarily  die  when  the  animal 
ceases  to  breathe. 

So  far  as  can  be  judged,  the  tissues  under  glass 
in  Dr.  Carrel's  experiments  would  live  in- 
definitely. He  even  keeps  bits  of  a  heart  beating 
in  his  glass  receptacles  for  months  after  the 
creature  from  which  the  fragment  was  taken  died 
and  was  buried. 

This  clearly  shows  that  it  was  not  inability  of 
the  heart-muscles  to  functionate  that  caused  the 
animal's  heart  to  cease  to  beat. 

The  same  thing  is  shown  in  another  way  by 
the  experiments  of  Dr.  Meltzer,  also  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute.  He  kills  dogs  and  other  animals, 
and  then  restores  them  to  life  by  artificial  respira- 
tion. His  method  has  been  applied  to  human 
beings  who  had  been  suffocated  in  mines,  and  to 
those  who  had  been  killed  by  an  electric  current. 

All  this  new  knowledge,  then,  seems  to  make  it 
clear  that  the  death  of  any  given  individual  by 
no  means  necessarily  implies  that  his  tissues  have 
lost  their  inherent  vitality.  In  the  view  of  the 


32  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

followers  of  Metchnikoff,  it  suggests  that  if  just 
the  right  conditions  could  be  found,  man  need  not 
die  except  by  accident — including  in  the  category 
of  accidents  the  attacks  of  specific  diseases. 

Putting  the  matter  in  its  baldest  form,  the 
question  may  be  said  to  be  reopened  as  to  whether 
the  familiar  phrase,  "  natural  death,"  is  not  a 
misnomer. 

But  is  not  the  question  answered,  you  say,  in 
the  observed  fact  that  all  higher  animals  are 
mortal?  Not  necessarily,  replies  the  follower  of 
Metchnikoff;  because  it  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  man  or  any  higher  animal  ever  does  die  a 
strictly  natural  death. 

That  is  surely  a  startling  assertion,  yet  it  will 
bear  close  examination.  The  most  casual  inspec- 
tion of  mortality  tables  will  show  that  the  vast 
majority  of  deaths  are  due  to  a  small  coterie  of 
allied  diseases  that  have  this  essential  common 
factor :  they  are  all  caused  by  microbes  which  in- 
vade the  body  and  overwhelm  the  normal  tissues. 

Guests  that  Shorten  Our  Lives 

Even  under  conditions  of  what  is  termed  per- 
fect health,  the  body  is  still  the  seat  of  myriads 
of  bacteria  of  many  species,  which  grow  and 
thrive  by  untold  billions  on  all  the  mucous  sur- 
faces of  the  mouth  and  digestive  and  respiratory 
tracts. 

These  bacteria  have  such  powers  of  reproduc- 
tion that,  if  conditions  were  favorable,  the 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  33 

progeny  of  a  single  one  would  increase  in  a  few 
weeks  to  such  dimensions  as  to  outbulk  the  entire 
body  of  their  host.  They  are  kept  from  this  dis- 
astrous development  only  by  the  constant  efforts 
of  the  cells  of  the  body  in  which  they  lodge. 

Now  these  bacteria  are  protoplasmic  cells  that 
feed  on  the  same  essential  substances  that  nourish 
the  cells  of  the  human  body ;  and  in  so  far  as  they 
thrive  in  the  body  they  make  the  conditions  of 
life  difficult  for  their  host. 

They  not  only  absorb  to  their  own  use  nutriment 
needed  by  the  body-cells,  but  they  secrete  waste 
products  that  are  deleterious  in  greater  or  less 
measure  to  the  human  organism. 

It  is  these  poisons  alone,  in  the  view  of  Metch- 
nikoff,  that  cause  the  decay  and  ultimate  death 
of  the  human  tissues.  But  for  the  presence  of 
bacteria,  in  this  view,  the  cells  of  the  human  body 
would  continue  their  functioning — granted  a 
proper  supply  of  food  and  normal  conditions  of 
excretion — indefinitely,  just  as  do  the  isolated 
cells  of  the  protozoa  in  a  sterile  and  properly 
renovated  culture  medium. 

But  unfortunately  the  bacteria  cannot  be  ex- 
cluded. There  is  not  a  human  being  or  a  higher 
animal  of  any  kind  that  does  not  harbor  in  its 
digestive  tract  a  population  of  bacteria  outnum- 
bering the  aggregate  human  population  of  the 
globe  since  the  race  was  developed.  The  labora- 
tory worker  is  able  to  prove  that  protozoa  are 
immortal,  because  he  is  able  to  provide  a  medium 
from  which  bacteria  are  excluded.  But  the  ex- 


34  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

periment  cannot  be  duplicated  with  any  higher 
animal,  because  there  is  no  conceivable  way  of 
providing  the  body-cells  with  a  sterile  medium. 

No  way  conceivable  just  at  present,  that  is  to 
say.  But  may  not  the  way  be  found?  Is  it  not 
possible  that  man  may  ultimately  exterminate  at 
least  such  of  the  hosts  of  bacteria  as  live  only  in 
his  body? 

It  seems  an  almost  hopeless  task;  yet  it  is  true 
that  even  now  the  more  noxious  microbes  are  be- 
ing subordinated.  In  any  contest  it  is  much  to 
know  just  who  are  your  real  opponents.  To-day 
man  knows,  for  the  first  time,  who  are  the  real 
enemies  of  his  prolonged  existence. 

Knowing  our  enemy,  we  are  learning  to  fight 
him.  His  deadliest  cohorts  represent  a  few  chief 
tribes,  the  members  of  which  flourish  exclusively 
or  mainly  in  the  human  body,  producing  there 
adverse  conditions  that  we  personify  and  name 
as  if  they  were  tangible  personalities — smallpox, 
plague,  tuberculosis,  pneumonia,  diphtheria, 
cholera,  typhoid  fever,  and  the  rest. 

To-day  preventive  medicine  is  grappling  with 
these  hosts,  and  seems  in  a  fair  way  to  banish 
most  of  them. 

A  century  ago  smallpox  claimed  by  death  about 
one-tenth  of  the  entire  population.  To-day  small- 
pox has  been  virtually  banished. 

Twenty  years  ago  diphtheria  was  the  scourge 
of  childhood ;  to-day  it  is  held  securely  in  check  by 
the  antitoxin  of  Behring. 

Ten  years  ago  typhoid  fever  was  a  menace  that 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  35 

threatened  everyone ;  to-day  the  vaccine  of  Wright 
offers  immunity  to  whoever  cares  to  use  it. 

Four  years  ago  syphilis  seemed  an  unconquer- 
able pest;  to-day  the  "  salvarsan  "  of  Ehrlich 
offers  a  specific  that  cures  in  a  single  dose. 

A  year  ago  cancer  was  the  despair  of  the 
physician;  to-day  there  is  at  least  the  hope  that 
a  remedy  is  being  perfected  in  the  hands  of  Von 
Wassermann  and  Ehrlich. 

Meantime  such  workers  as  Metchnikoff  are 
turning  attention  to  microbes  of  that  less  virulent 
type  that  have  learned  to  flourish  in  the  body  of 
their  host  without  causing  his  early  demise. 
Metchnikoff 's  newest  experiment,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  to  fight  fire  with  fire,  as  it  were,  by  intro- 
ducing into  the  intestinal  tract  bacteria  of  a  new 
tribe  to  antagonize  the  poison-generating  tribes 
that  are  already  quartered  there.  Even  if  he 
succeeds,  his  results  must  be  less  spectacular 
than  the  efforts  directed  against  the  quick-acting 
disease-germs;  yet  the  ultimate  results  may  be 
no  less  important  as  they  have  to  do  with  the 
definite  prolongation  of  life. 

Thus  the  men  of  science  are  closing  in  day  by 
day  on  the  ranks  of  the  noxious  microbes.  The 
results  are  tangibly  shown  in  the  decrease  of  in- 
fant mortality,  the  banishment  of  epidemics,  the 
lowered  death-rate  in  cities,  the  making  salubrious 
of  the  Panama  Canal  region,  the  extraordinary 
lengthening  of  the  average  period  of  life.  Of  the 
individuals  born  in  our  generation,  a  higher  per- 
centage will  reach  patriarchal  years  than  lived 


36  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

through  childhood  in   the   days  of  our  grand- 
parents. 

All  this  may  not  presage  the  actual  banishment 
of  death,  but  it  surely  suggests  that  the  scientific 
search  for  the  fountain  of  eternal  youth  has 
proved  a  less  futile  and  visionary  quest  than  it 
once  seemed. 

Learning  the  Needs  of  the  Cells 

If  our  enemy,  the  microbe,  should  finally  be 
held  in  check,  it  would  remain  to  provide  ideal 
conditions  of  nourishment  and  elimination  for 
the  cells  of  the  body.  And  Dr.  Carrel's  new 
method  of  cultivating  tissues  outside  the  body 
offers  hitherto  unexampled  opportunities  for 
learning  the  needs  of  the  cells. 

It  will  be  obvious  that  when  fragments  of  tissue 
are  thus  cultivated,  it  becomes  possible  to  test 
the  effect  of  different  foodstuffs  upon  the  growth 
and  health  of  the  tissues  in  a  way  that  was  never 
possible  while  the  tissue  was  part  of  a  complex 
body.  When  time  has  been  given  for  elaborate 
sets  of  such  tests,  we  shall  know,  as  no  one  has 
hitherto  known,  just  what  modifications  of  food- 
stuffs are  beneficial  to  different  kinds  of  tissues. 
We  shall  ultimately  learn  what  quantities  of  food 
supplies  are  required,  and  just  what  are  the  ab- 
solutely normal  conditions  of  the  elimination  of 
waste  products. 

We  shall  then  know,  for  example,  whether  a 
meat  diet  or  a  vegetable  diet  is  best  for  the  human 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  37 

organism,  or  whether  a  mixed  diet  is  better  than 
either.  We  shall  know  precisely  what  is  the  ulti- 
mate effect  on  each  kind  of  tissue  of  such  auxiliary 
foodstuffs  and  nerve  stimulants  as  alcohol,  to- 
bacco, tea,  coffee,  and  various  condiments.  In  a 
word,  we  shall  have  a  really  comprehensive  and 
scientific  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  sanita- 
tion and  hygiene,  so  to  speak,  for  the  individual 
cells  of  the  human  tissues. 

Then  it  will  be  possible  to  put  forward  rules 
of  diet  and  exercise,  and,  on  occasion  of  medica- 
tion, that  will  establish  approximately  ideal  condi- 
tions for  the  organism  as  a  whole. 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  we  shall  be 
able  to  make  these  conditions  so  ideal  as  to  give 
the  organism  indefinite  life. 

It  may  be  discovered,  for  example,  that,  in  the 
differentiated  body  politic  of  the  human  organism, 
conditions  that  are  ideal  for  one  set  of  tissues 
may  not  be  ideal  for  another.  Indeed,  there  is  a 
suggestion  of  this  in  the  well-known  fact  that  the 
muscular  system  of  the  average  man  tends  to 
become  old  and  decadent  long  before  his  brain 
begins  to  decrease  in  power. 

So  it  may  happen  that  we  can  never  make  the 
conditions  just  right  for  one  set  of  cells  without 
making  them  wrong  for  another ;  in  which  case  we 
cannot  hope  to  give  the  body  immortal  life. 

But  whether  or  not  there  should  prove  to  be 
this  limitation  to  the  possible  fulfillment  of  the 
hopes  of  the  modern  alchemist,  there  can  be  no 
question  that  it  lies  within  the  possibilities  of 


38  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

physiology  and  hygiene,  even  to-day,  to  improve 
the  conditions  under  which  the  average  man 
exists,  so  that  life  of  the  average  individual  may 
be  very  greatly  prolonged,  and  the  resilient  con- 
ditions of  youth  maintained  far  into  the  period 
that  we  now  term  old  age. 


What  May  Be  Done  To-day? 

Whatever  else  the  new  studies  teach  us,  they 
show  that  all  the  tissues  of  the  body  should  be 
given  opportunity  for  healthful  functioning,  and 
all  the  channels  of  elimination  kept  freely  in 
operation. 

Professor  Metchmkoff  himself  believes  that 
there  is  little  need  of  the  services  of  his  glycobac- 
terium  for  persons  whose  diet  is  always  what  it 
should  be.  I  would  add,  provided  the  person  ex- 
ercises to  a  reasonable  degree.  Without  such 
exercise,  I  believe,  it  is  impossible  to  keep  up  a 
proper  blood  supply  to  all  tissues,  and  to  insure 
a  healthful  degree  of  elimination. 

Even  with  the  best  regimen  and  hygiene,  and 
ideal  habits  of  exercise  and  rest,  we  cannot  of 
course  hope  that  in  our  generation  at  any  rate, 
we  shall  be  able  to  produce  even  approximately 
ideal  conditions  in  the  bodily  mechanism.  No 
sane  person,  therefore,  supposes  that  Professor 
Metchnikoff  Js  discovery,  or  any  other  that  our 
generation  is  likely  to  see,  will  solve  the  problem 
of  perennial  youth,  let  alone  that  of  perennial 
life. 


The  Duel  with  Old  Age  39 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  no  well-informed 
physiologist  doubts  that  the  average  man  may 
even  now,  by  the  application  of  knowledge  clearly 
in  hand,  ward  off  for  a  time  the  onset  of  old  age, 
and  prolong  the  term  of  his  years.  A  large  coterie 
of  famous  men  of  all  ages — from  Sophocles, 
JEschylus,  and  Euripides  in  antiquity,  to  Hum- 
boldt,  Gladstone,  Bismarck,  and  many  others  in 
modern  times — have  demonstrated  that  by  right 
living  it  may  be  possible,  without  resort  to  lactic 
bacilli  or  glycobacteria,  to  carry  the  strength, 
vitality,  intellectual  acumen,  and  spirit  of  youth 
into  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  decades. 

Now  that  preventive  medicine  is  banishing  the 
germs  of  contagious  diseases  that  have  been  man's 
chief  enemies  in  the  past,  the  number  of  men  and 
women  who  duplicate  this  record  should  increase 
by  leaps  and  bounds. 

Perennial  life  would  be  perhaps  a  doubtful 
blessing.  But  to  remain  young  in  spirit  through- 
out our  mortal  span — never  really  to  grow  old — 
is  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished  for  each 
and  every  one  of  us.  And  this  possibility,  I  con- 
fidently believe,  lies  even  now  within  the  grasp  of 
every  average  individual. 

To  suggest  practical  means  to  effect  this  end, 
for  you  and  for  your  children,  is  the  purpose  of 
the  ensuing  pages,  which  deal  with  different 
aspects  of  the  problem  of  attaining  health,  happi- 
ness, and  long  life  through  attention  to  personal 
hygiene. 


n 

The  Battle  of  the  Microbes 

FEW,  if  any,  of  us  escape  the  occasional  in- 
halation or  inhibition  of  the  germs  of  tuber- 
culosis. 

If  you  have  two  children,  there  is  more  than 
an  even  chance  that  at  least  one  of  them  is  infected 
with  these  germs  at  the  present  moment,  though 
the  germs  give  no  evidence  of  their  presence.  If 
your  entire  family  comprises  five  individuals,  the 
chances  are  one  to  two  that  at  least  one  member 
will  ultimately  die  of  consumption — since  that  dis- 
ease is  credited  with  ten  per  cent  of  all  deaths. 

It  numbers  more  than  three  thousand  victims 
each  week  in  the  United  States  alone. 

Nearly  everyone  has  heard  that  smallpox 
formerly  killed  one-tenth  of  the  population,  as 
tuberculosis  does  now ;  and  that  it  pitted  the  faces 
of  a  large  proportion  of  the  race,  somewhat  as 
tuberculosis  pits  the  lungs  of  the  great  majority 
to-day.  But  after  the  celebrated  Dr.  Edward 
Jenner  discovered  the  efficiency  of  vaccination, 
smallpox  was  soon  under  control.  The  disease 
was  estimated  to  have  killed  fifty  million  people 
in  Europe  in  the  eighteenth  century, — just  about 
ten  times  the  total  population  of  the  United 
States  at  the  close  of  that  century.  But  since 

40 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  41 

Jennerian  vaccination  was  introduced,  smallpox 
has  been  practically  abolished  except  among  un- 
civilized peoples  and  the  very  ignorant  classes.  It 
was  so  terrible  a  scourge  that  its  name  still  excites 
popular  apprehension;  but  the  disease  itself  has 
no  terror  for  anyone  who  chooses  to  avoid  it. 

Unfortunately  there  are  enough  ignorant  and 
bigoted  and  careless  people  in  the  world  to  keep 
smallpox  in  existence ;  but  the  frightful  epidemics 
that  killed  half  the  population  of  entire  regions 
can  by  no  possibility  recur  among  any  people  in- 
telligent enough  to  avail  themselves  of  the  benefi- 
cent privilege  of  vaccination. 

In  the  same  way  tuberculosis,  the  great  scourge 
of  our  time,  will  some  day  cease  to  claim  its  ten 
per  cent  of  our  race,  for  an  immunizing  virus  is 
certain  to  be  discovered.  Even  if  the  vaccines 
that  are  now  being  tested  should  prove  disap- 
pointing, there  can  be  little  doubt  that  someone 
among  the  many  investigators  who  are  working 
on  the  problem  will  finally  attain  success.  But  at 
best  a  long  time  must  elapse  before  the  remedy 
can  be  universally  applied ;  and  one  dare  not  pre- 
dict the  complete  extirpation  of  this  or  any  other 
germ  disease  until  people  in  general  are  much 
more  intelligently  alive  to  their  own  interests 
than  they  are  at  present. 

Popular  Apathy 

The  curious  and  discouraging  fact  is  that  most 
people  are  strangely  oblivious  to  the  remediable 


42  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

dangers  that  lie  all  about  them,  while  they  mani- 
fest keen  interest  in  spectacular  calamities  that 
are  far  less  momentous. 

Thus  everyone  read  with  horror  a  few  months 
ago  that  ten  thousand  Turks  were  reported  to 
have  fallen  in  a  single  battle  with  the  Bulgarians ; 
the  newspapers  scare-headed  the  accounts  from 
ocean  to  ocean.  But  no  newspaper  thought  to 
mention  that  many  times  ten  thousand  victims 
had  fallen  on  the  same  day  before  microbic  foes 
that  are  far  more  relentless  than  Turk  or  Bulgar. 
The  toll  of  infant  lives  alone  amounts  to  about 
forty  thousand  daily — one  at  every  other  tick  of 
the  clock,  as  a  speaker  at  the  recent  International 
Congress  of  Hygiene  computed. 

For  the  most  part  these  infants  are  slaughtered, 
in  the  sense  that  they  fall  victims  to  preventable 
diseases. 

But  the  thing  is  too  familiar  to  excite  interest. 
It  is  hard  to  make  a  news  item  out  of  something 
that  occurs  every  day. 

Doubtless  the  chief  cause  of  public  apathy  as 
to  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents,  however,  results 
from  lack  of  general  understanding  of  the  condi- 
tions of  the  one-sided  combat  in  which  the  infants 
are  vanquished.  The  mother  who  sends  her  infant 
to  its  grave  does  not  do  so  wilfully ;  she  acts  only 
through  ignorance.  And  the  general  public, 
which  reads  with  complacency  Professor  Irving 
Fisher's  estimate  that  six  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  preventable  deaths  occur  in  this  country 
each  year,  is  complacent  simply  because  of  its 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  43 

ignorance.  It  does  not  clearly  apprehend  what  is 
meant  here  by  the  word  "  preventable."  The  old 
idea  about  the  "  visitation  of  Providence  "  still 
gives  consolation  to  thousands  of  mothers  who 
have  really  administered  the  death-potion  to  their 
infants  with  their  own  hands. 

Knowledge  as  to  the  true  and  tangible  cause  of 
death  is  so  new  that  physicians  are  only  beginning 
to  grasp  it,  and  the  general  public  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  have  gained  more  than  a  vague  inkling 
of  it. 

Legions  of  Enemies 

It  is  perhaps  not  superfluous,  then,  to  remind 
the  reader  that  the  vast  majority  of  all  deaths 
are  due  to  the  invasion  of  the  human  body  by 
definite  and  tangible  foes,  which  are  no  less  real 
because  they  are  of  microscopic  dimensions.  The 
chief  aim  of  medical  science  in  our  day  is  to  com- 
bat these  microbes,  either  by  preventing  their 
access  to  the  body,  or  by  making  the  body  proof 
against  them  if  they  do  find  entrance. 

Thus  when  we  say  that  a  person  has  consump- 
tion we  mean  that  a  microbe  of  a  definite  species, 
which  we  name  the  tubercle  bacillus,  has  lodged 
in  the  lungs,  and  is  flourishing  there. 

Similarly  typhoid  fever  is  a  condition  induced 
by  colonies  of  the  typhoid  bacillus  in  the  large 
intestine;  diphtheria  means  a  poisoning  of  the 
system  by  the  secretions  of  a  colony  of  Klebs- 
Loeffler  bacilli  in  the  throat,  and  so  on. 

We  speak  of  the  microbes  that  produce  these 


44  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

untoward  results  as  "  malignant  ";  but  of  course 
this  is  a  biased  view  of  their  activities.  The  bacilli 
may  cause  the  death  of  their  host,  but  it  is  by  no 
means  to  their  advantage  to  do  so.  They  have 
colonized  in  his  lungs  or  digestive  tract  or  throat 
"because  they  found  lodgment  there  convenient, 
and  they  can  multiply  and  flourish  only  in  a  warm 
place.  So  if  they  increase  with  such  ill-judged 
rapidity  as  to  cause  the  death  of  their  host,  they 
must  presently  die  also,  being  powerless  to  escape. 

Instead  of  malignant,  we  might  better  describe 
these  microbes  as  foolish. 

There  are  sundry  wiser  members  of  the  tribe 
that  have  learned  to  colonize  the  human  body 
without  being  obviously  harmful;  at  least  without 
causing  the  death  of  their  host.  Some  fifty  dif- 
ferent species  or  varieties  of  these  peaceful 
microbes  may  be  found  on  occasion  flourishing  in 
the  salivary  juices  of  the  mouth;  and  legions  of 
them  are  always  present  in  the  intestinal  cavity. 
Their  host,  far  from  being  made  violently  ill  by 
them,  is  blissfully  oblivious  of  their  existence. 

And  yet  these  "  benevolent  "  bacteria,  no  less 
than  the  "  malignant"  ones,  are  perfectly 
tangible  creatures,  of  definite  size,  form,  and 
contour. 

If  you  were  to  moisten  a  glass  slide  with  your 
tongue  and  place  it  in  the  field  of  a  microscope, 
you  might  witness  the  activities  of  a  strange  and 
varied  company  of  fellow-citizens.  You  would 
see  that  some  tribes  are  shaped  like  tiny  rods. 
These  are  called  bacilli.  Others  are  mere  dots, 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  45 

like  infinitesimal  droplets  of  water.  These  are 
called  micrococci.  Yet  others  resemble  tiny  cork- 
screws, and  are  called  spirilla.  These  are  the 
three  main  tribes  of  bacteria,  each  tribe  having 
many  species,  which,  however,  closely  resemble 
one  another  in  general  appearance.  The  largest 
of  them  come  within  the  range  of  vision  only  when 
magnified  by  a  powerful  lens;  and  the  smallest 
ones  that  have  been  observed  are  barely  visible 
specks  when  amplified  by  a  thousand  diameters. 

A  man  similarly  magnified  would  appear  more 
than  a  mile  in  length. 

Yet  the  most  infinitesimal  microbe,  when  banded 
with  his  fellows,  may  prove  more  than  a  match  for 
the  man.  Indeed,  it  almost  seems  as  if  the  microbic 
virulence  increased  with  diminishing  size ;  for  the 
malignant  varieties  are  mostly  far  smaller  than 
many  benevolent  ones;  and  the  germs  of  several 
very  malignant  diseases,  including  smallpox, 
scarlet  fever,  and  hydrophobia,  escape  detection 
under  the  most  powerful  microscope.  They  ap- 
pear to  be  able  to  pass  through  the  meshes  of  a 
porcelain  filter. 

Thus  they  are  unthinkably  small ;  yet  they  are  as 
deadly  as  cannon  balls. 

Treacherous  Half-Tamed  Legions 

Among  the  hosts  of  "  peaceful  "  microbes  that 
appear  in  the  drop  of  saliva  you  have  placed  on 
the  microscope  slide,  there  may  be  some  that  are 
by  no  means  so  harmless  as  their  presence  in  the 


46  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

mouth  of  a  person  in  perfect  health  might  seem 
to  argue. 

More  than  likely  there  are  goodly  numbers  of 
pneumococci,  the  germs  of  pneumonia;  and  al- 
most certainly  there  are  hosts  of  streptcocci  and 
staphylococci,  the  pus-forming  microbes  and  the 
agents  of  blood  poisoning.  All  these  may  flourish 
in  your  mouth  without  causing  you  obvious  injury 
or  inconvenience.  They  seem  quite  friendly  and 
harmless.  But  in  reality  they  are  treacherous 
ingrates;  for,  even  as  they  bivouac  under  a  flag 
of  truce  on  your  bodily  surfaces,  exterior  and  in- 
terior, they  are  forever  on  the  lookout  for  an  op- 
portunity to  invade  your  blood-stream  and  lymph- 
spaces  ;  and  when  the  opportunity  comes,  they  will 
wage  a  guerrilla  warfare  as  ruthless  as  that  waged 
by  any  one  of  the  frankly  hostile  bacteria. 

Suppose,  for  instance,  that  you  chance  to  be 
exposed  to  inclement  weather  some  day,  and  be- 
come thoroughly  chilled.  Your  temperature  is 
lowered  for  the  moment;  your  vitality  below  par. 
That  moment  of  weakened  defense  will  quite  prob- 
ably be  seized  on  by  the  pneumococcus  to  invade 
your  lungs;  and  you  will  be  stricken  with  pneu- 
monia. 

Or  suppose  that  a  company  of  diphtheria  bacilli 
find  their  way  into  your  throat.  The  hostile 
colony  will  at  once  be  agumented  by  recruits  from 
the  ranks  of  the  streptococcus — always  loitering 
in  your  mouth — who  will  help  to  form  a  character- 
istic "  false  membrane,"  and  if  possible  will  in- 
vade the  tissues,  and  induce  blood  poisoning. 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  47 

Then,  too,  the  streptococci  can  live  on  the  sur- 
face of  your  body.  Doubtless  there  are  myriads 
of  them  on  the  hand  with  which  you  hold  this  book. 
When  a  cut  or  wound,  small  or  large,  develops 
an  angry,  ulcerated  surface,  the  presence  of 
streptococcus  and  his  allies  is  demonstrated.  In 
warfare  it. is  not  bullets  that  kill  most  soldiers, 
even  those  that  fall  wounded  on  the  field.  It  is 
streptococcus,  and  his  close  relative,  staphylo- 
coccus,  which  invade  a  wound,  otherwise  perhaps 
not  serious,  and  produce  suppuration  and 
gangrene. 

It  is  these  germs  that  find  their  way  into  the 
blood-stream,  causing  blood  poisoning,  and  pres- 
ently completing  the  deadly  work  of  bullet  and 
bayonet. 

Even  with  no  external  lesions  to  give  them  free 
access  to  the  tissues,  these  omnipresent  microbes 
may  on  occasion  find  their  way  into  pores  or  ducts 
in  the  skin,  causing  boils,  carbuncles,  stys,  or 
local  abscesses.  In  pulmonary  tuberculosis  they 
are  the  chief  cause  also  of  the  ulcers  in  the  lungs 
that  induce  hemorrhage  and  ultimately  death  it- 
self. They  are  a  prime,  if  not  the  exclusive,  cause 
of  erysipelas;  and  in  smallpox  and  scarlet  fever 
their  activities  produce  complications  of  serious 
and  very  often  of  fatal  character.  Wherever  they 
gain  entrance,  the  symptoms  of  blood  poisoning 
supervene.  In  one-third  of  all  deaths,  from  what- 
ever primary  cause,  streptococci  may  be  found  in 
blood  taken  from  the  heart.  They  may  cause  a 
malignant  inflammation  of  the  lining  membrane 


48  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

of  the  heart  itself;  and  they  have  an  active  share 
in  hastening  the  end  of  patients  suffering  from 
diabetes  and  other  supposedly  non-bacterial 
maladies. 

First  and  last,  the  streptococcus  has  had  a  hand 
in  more  human  deaths,  probably,  than  are  to  be 
charged  against  any  other  single  agency  whatso- 
ever. 

And  all  this,  be  it  understood,  refers  to  a  mi- 
crobe that  has  been  said  to  be  semi-domesticated 
because  it  is  always  present  everywhere  on  our 
skins  and  in  our  mouths ;  however  unfamiliar  his 
name  may  be  to  his  average  host. 

The  Body  a  Fortified  Castle 

But  if,  then,  microbes  of  such  malign  possibili- 
ties are  not  merely  all  about  us  but  all  over  us — 
on  your  skin  and  mine,  under  our  finger  nails,  in 
our  mouths — how  do  any  of  us  escape  being 
stricken  down  by  them  even  for  a  single  day  or 
hour? 

The  answer  gives  an  insight  into  strange  func- 
tions that  until  recently  were  quite  unsuspected. 
It  reveals  the  human  body  as  a  fortified  citadel, 
guarded  at  every  vulnerable  point,  without  and 
within,  by  walls  that  to  the  enemy  are  well-nigh 
impenetrable ;  and  garrisoned  with  legions  of  war- 
riors ever  on  the  alert  to  attack  any  intruder  that 
makes  a  breach  in  the  fortifications  and  finds  en- 
trance. 

Such  language  may  seem  figurative.    In  reality 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  49 

it  expresses  the  precise  conditions  that  prevail. 
The  invading  hosts  have  been  named,  and  the 
character  of  their  onslaught  suggested.  The  bar- 
riers that  hold  them  at  bay — the  walls  and  barri- 
cades of  the  human  fortress — are  the  skin  without 
and  the  mucous  membranes  within  the  cavities  of 
the  body. 

The  soldiers  that  stand  ready  to  attack  the 
microbic  invaders  are  the  white  blood-corpuscles, 
or  leucocytes,  that  everywhere  swarm  in  the 
blood-  and  lymph-channels. 

If  you  were  to  prick  the  tip  of  your  finger  with 
a  needle,  and  place  the  tiny  droplet  of  blood  that 
exudes  on  a  microscope  slide,  you  would  see  thou- 
sands of  these  leucocytes  distributed  here  and 
there  in  the  blood,  in  the  midst  of  the  millions  of 
red  blood-corpuscles.  You  might  recognize  them 
at  once  by  their  relatively  large  size.  They  ap- 
pear practically  colorless,  like  a  drop  of  white  of 
egg;  but  a  visible  nucleus  shows  that  they  have  a 
definite  structure;  and  the  way  they  move  about, 
slowly  changing  shape  and,  as  it  were,  flowing  in 
one  direction  or  another,  shows  clearly  that  they 
are  alive.  They  closely  resemble  in  appearance 
and  manner  the  lowly  single-celled  organism 
called  the  amoeba,  which  you  may  have  seen  under 
the  miscroscope  in  a  drop  of  impure  water ;  and  it 
is  a  trifle  disconcerting  to  observe  that  there  are 
thousands  of  these  creatures  in  the  tiniest  drop 
of  normal  blood. 

But  you  owe  not  merely  health  but  life  itself  to 
them. 


50  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

The  Battle  in  the  Blood-Stream 

If  you  wish  to  see  for  yourself  what  manner  of 
service  the  leucocyte  performs  for  you,  nothing 
more  is  necessary  than  to  insert  a  needle-point  in 
a  culture  of  bacteria — say,  in  your  own  mouth — 
and  convey  a  colony  of  microbes  to  the  drop  of 
blood  you  are  examining.  It  will  then  be  clear 
that  the  leucocyte  is  a  creature  of  ferocious  nature, 
who  regards  every  bacterium  as  a  mortal  enemy, 
which  must  be  fallen  upon  and  literally  devoured. 
You  will  see  the  leucocyte  flow  about  the  bacteria 
and  engulf  them  bodily,  one  after  another;  and 
the  remains  of  the  victims  will  be  visible  within 
the  transparent  body  of  their  devourer,  until  they 
gradually  undergo  digestion. 

Owing  to  this  extraordinary  habit,  the  leuco- 
cytes were  christened  phagocytes,  or  cell-eaters, 
by  Professor  Elie  Metchnikoff ,  who  first  witnessed 
this  strange  battle  in  the  blood,  and  interpreted 
its  beneficent  meaning. 

You  might  witness  such  a  fight  as  this  not  only 
in  a  drop  of  your  own  blood,  but  in  the  living 
tissues  of  the  web  of  a  frog's  foot  if  touched  with 
an  infected  needle-point;  or,  to  better  advantage, 
under  high  powers  of  the  microscope,  in  the  thin 
mesenteric  (intestinal)  membrane  of  an  anesthet- 
ized mouse. 

At  first  glance  the  contest  will  seem  an  unequal 
one.  The  invading  bacteria  are  but  pigmies  be- 
side the  militant  defenders.  Streptococci  are  so 
small,  for  example,  that  a  regiment  of  two  thou- 


The  Battle  of 'the  Microbes  51 

sand  of  them,  ranged  up  in  line,  would  be  required 
to  span  the  letter  "  o  "  as  printed  on  this  page. 
The  typhoid  bacillus  would  require  half  an  hour's 
time  to  cross  the  same  space,  though  it  propelled 
itself  (as  its  cilia  enable  it  to  do)  more  than  three 
times  its  own  length  each  second.  The  influenza 
bacillus  is  so  infinitesimal  that  if  the  warriors  of 
his  clan  were  neatly  marshaled  in  compact  order, 
more  than  six  billion  of  them  could  be  quartered 
on  the  surface  of  a  square  inch. 

To  such  Lilliputians,  the  white  blood-corpuscle, 
about  two  thousand  five  hundred  of  which  could 
span  an  inch,  must  seem  colossal. 

But  the  bacterium,  though  outclassed  in  size,  is 
by  no  means  helpless.  The  noxious  members  of 
the  tribe  are  endowed  with  some  chemical  or 
physical  property,  the  exact  nature  of  which  we 
do  not  know,  that  enables  them  to  repel  the 
leucocyte  and  strangely  escape  being  engulfed  in 
its  body.  Such  at  least  is  often  the  case. 

The  cells  of  the  body,  however,  under  stimulus 
of  the  presence  of  a  hostile  bacterium,  can  secrete 
certain  chemicals  that  break  down  the  bacterial 
defense,  and  put  the  microbe  at  the  mercy  of  the 
leucocyte. 

When  such  chemicals  have  been  secreted  into  the 
blood  (or  when  they  have  been  artificially  intro- 
duced) the  bacteria  are  weakened,  and  the  leuco- 
cytes will  be  seen,  under  the  microscope,  to  throw 
themselves  upon  the  microbes  and  devour  them, 
ultimately  digesting  their  remains. 

The  extent  to  which  the  leucocytes  are  able  to 


52  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

do  this  very  largely  determines  the  relative  safety 
of  any  given  individual  against  the  attacks  of  a 
microbic  host. 

Billions  of  Combatants 

The  conditions  of  the  fight  will  be  better  under- 
stood if  we  reflect  that  the  invading  microbes, 
when  they  gain  entrance  to  the  blood  at  all,  are 
likely  to  come  in  hordes  of  unthinkable  numbers, 
and  are  able  to  reproduce  their  kind,  and  thus  fill 
up  gaps  in  their  ranks,  with  appalling  rapidity 
when  they  find  favorable  conditions.  A  baterium 
born  this  moment  may  become  a  grandparent 
within  an  hour.  That  is  to  say,  it  may  have  di- 
vided itself  into  two  individuals,  and  these  two 
may  have  divided  to  make  four.  And  this  process 
may  proceed,  if  conditions  continue  favorable, 
with  the  cumulative  speed  that  renders  a  geo- 
metrical ratio  always  so  startling. 

At  the  end  of  forty-eight  hours,  it  has  been  esti- 
mated, a  single  bacterium  may  have  descendants 
to  the  number  of  281,500,000. 

In  another  day,  the  number  would  be  beyond 
computing;  but  the  aggregate  bulk  of  the  family 
—composed  of  individuals  that  could  lodge  by 
millions  on  your  finger-tip  without  your  knowing 
of  their  presence — would  be,  as  Dr.  Jordan  as- 
sure us,  more  than  seven  thousand  tons! 

With  such  figures  in  mind,  we  may  gain  some 
notion  of  the  task  that  is  cut  out  for  the  white 
blood-corpuscles  when  a  bacterial  army  invades 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  53 

their  stronghold.  The  foe  may  come  by  billions, 
though  their  medium  be  but  a  few  drops  of  con- 
taminated water  or  milk;  and  it  is  obvious  that 
no  time  is  to  be  lost  if  they  are  to  be  prevented 
from  absolutely  overwhelming  the  body  by  mere 
force  of  numbers,  to  say  nothing  of  the  toxic 
effects  of  their  secretions. 

But  the  defending  leucocytes  constitute  a  host 
of  prodigious  numbers  also.  It  is  evidence  of  the 
stressful  conditions  under  which  we  live  that  there 
is  a  garrison  of  about  one  hundred  thousand 
leucocytes  at  all  times  in  every  drop  of  blood  in 
our  bodies. 

They  constitute  a  standing  army  numbering 
more  than  fifty  billion,  in  the  blood-system  of 
every  human  being. 

The  maintenance  of  such  an  army,  eternally 
vigilant,  is  the  price  of  life  itself  in  this  microbe- 
haunted  world.  There  is  no  hour  of  the  day  when 
the  system  may  not  be  invaded  by  one  or  another 
of  the  bacterial  hosts  that  are  ever  garrisoned  on 
the  other  side  of  the  thin  walls  of  the  skin  and 
mucous  membrane. 

A  mosquito  or  a  flee  or  a  tick  or  a  bedbug  may 
drill  a  hole  through  the  wall,  and  introduce  a  regi- 
ment of  germs  of  malaria  or  plague  or  con- 
tagious fever. 

A  chance  nail  puncture  may  bring  deep  into 
the  tissues  a  colony  of  streptococci  or  the  deadly 
microbe  of  tetanus  (lockjaw),  which  abounds  al- 
most everywhere  in  the  soil. 

A  slight  fissure  in  tonsil  or  pharynx  may  give 


54  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

opportunity  for  the  streptococcus  and  his  allies  to 
enter  tissues  in  which  they  can  multiply  with  as- 
tonishing rapidity. 

Or  the  coign  of  vantage  from  which  the  attack 
is  made  may  lie  in  a  remote  lobule  of  the  lung, 
or  in  the  intestinal  tract ;  such  being  the  favorite 
seats  of  action  of  tubercle  and  typhoid  bacilli,  re- 
spectively, to  name  but  two  enemies  among  many. 

Details  of  the  Combat 

So  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  the  leucocytes 
should  at  all  times  be  posted  in  numbers,  behind 
every  inch  of  the  fortifying  but  not  quite  im- 
pregnable walls. 

It  is  essential  also  that  they  should  constitute  a 
mobile  army,  capable  of  being  concentrated  at  any 
given  point  where  an  attack  of  unusual  virulence 
is  sustained.  The  position  of  the  leucocytes  as 
normally  distributed  throughout  the  blood-stream 
enables  them  to  fulfil  these  conditions  ideally. 
They  are  always  present  as  a  defending  garrison 
about  every  cell  of  the  entire  body ;  and  when  any 
localized  attack  of  microbes  is  reported,  there  is 
an  instant  reinforcement  of  the  troops  at  that 
point  supplied  from  the  neighboring  blood- 
channels. 

Should  there  be  a  cut  in  the  flesh,  for  example, 
or  a  bullet  wound,  which  is  "  infected,"  the  sur- 
rounding tissues  become  swollen  and  red — "  in- 
flamed," as  the  saying  is. 

This  means  that  the  blood-vessels  have  become 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  55 

patulous,  their  blood-current  slackened,  to  give 
lodgment  to  ever-increasing  bands  of  leucocytes 
that  are  being  mobilized  there  to  contest  every 
millimeter  of  the  exposed  territory  with  the  in- 
vading microbes.  How  recklessly  they  throw 
themselves  into  the  breach  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  the  pus  which  presently  gathers  and  flows 
from  the  wound  is  composed  largely  of  the  bodies 
of  leucocytes  that,  in  their  eagerness  to  pursue 
the  enemy,  have,  so  to  speak,  fallen  outside  the 
broken  fortifications. 

Until  a  few  years  ago,  no  one  understood  the 
nature  of  this  contest.  The  surgeon  regarded  in- 
flammation as  a  necessary  part  of  the  process  of 
healing  wounds.  He  talked  of  "laudable  "  pus, 
and  was  well  content  if  the  discharge  from  a 
wound  was  free  from  the  bad  odor  that  might 
portend  the  onset  of  hospital  gangrene.  But 
to-day  Listerism  has  changed  all  that. 

Now  that  the  condition  is  understood,  the  sur- 
geon knows  how  to  deal  with  it. 

He  takes  good  care  to  see  that  no  microbes 
follow  in  the  track  of  his  scalpel.  Everything 
that  he  uses  in  an  operation  has  been  treated 
with  antiseptics  or  boiled  and  steamed  in  a  ster- 
ilizer. If  he  is  called  to  an  accident  case,  in  which 
germs  have  already  invaded  a  wound,  he  kills  the 
germs  with  an  antiseptic  solution,  and  dresses  the 
wound  with  "  sterile  " — that  is  to  say,  germ-free 
— gauze,  to  prevent  any  further  invasion.  The 
old-time  surgeon  unwittingly  left  the  entire  treat- 
ment of  a  wound  practically  in  the  hands  of  the 


56  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

militant  leucocytes  (though  he  had  no  notion  that 
he  was  doing  so) ;  the  present-day  surgeon  shuts 
out  the  enemy,  and  makes  the  presence  of  the 
leucocytic  host  almost  superfluous. 

i 

Reinforcements  for  the  Warriors 

What  the  surgeon,  dealing  with  visible  lesions, 
accomplishes  with  his  antiseptics,  the  physician 
must  undertake  in  quite  another  way  when  called 
upon  to  aid  the  leucocytes  in  fighting  germs  that 
have  made  their  way  into  the  general  blood-stream 
and  are  swarming  perhaps  in  the  juices  of  every 
tissue. 

For  two  or  three  microbes  only  are  antiseptic 
drugs  known  that  can  be  given  in  sufficient  quan- 
tities to  kill  the  remotely  scattered  germs,  with- 
out at  the  same  time  killing  the  patient. 

But  another  way  of  attacking  the  problem  is 
to  attempt  to  aid  the  body  in  strengthening  its 
normal  defenses.  In  many  cases  this  may  be  ac- 
complished by  developing  so-called  viruses — 
antitoxins  and  vaccines — that  are  deleterious  to 
specific  microbes.  These  viruses  are  developed 
only  through  use  of  the  specific  germs  themselves. 
The  antitoxins,  of  which  the  remedy  for  diph- 
theria is  the  best-known  example,  are  secured  by 
inoculating  a  horse  with  a  liquid  in  which  a  cul- 
ture of  diphtheria  baccili  has  been  grown.  After 
repeated  inoculations,  the  blood  of  the  horse  is 
found  to  be  charged  with  an  antidote  to  the  diph- 
theria poison,  and  a  portion  of  serum  from  the 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  57 

blood  of  the  horse  constitutes  the  beneficent 
remedy  which,  since  its  introduction  by  Dr.  Emil 
von  Behring  less  than  twenty  years  ago,  is 
credited  with  saving  millions  of  human  lives. 

In  the  old  days,  more  than  half  the  diphtheria 
victims  died ;  in  our  day  the  serum  saves  nine  out 
of  ten. 

Not  fewer  than  seventy-five  thousand  lives  are 
thus  saved  annually  in  the  United  States  alone. 

Of  vaccines,  the  familiar  examples  are  that  de- 
veloped in  the  body  of  the  cow,  and  used  so  ef- 
fectively against  smallpox,  and  the  anti-rabic 
vaccines  used  at  the  Pasteur  Institutes.  The 
newest  type  of  vaccine-therapy  calls  on  the  in- 
dividual human  patient  to  develop  his  own  anti- 
dotes, and  it  induces  conditions  that  enable  him 
to  do  this  safely  and  effectively.  The  therapist 
makes  a  culture  of  a  specific  disease-germ  in  the 
laboratory  test-tube.  He  then  kills  the  microbes 
by  heating  them,  and  with  a  hypodermic  syringe 
injects  a  few  million  of  their  bodies  into  the  tis- 
sues of  the  human  subject. 

Such  a  wilful  inoculation  of  a  patient  with 
virulent  disease  germs  seems  at  first  sight  a 
hazardous  experiment. 

But  the  microbes  are  injected  in  limited  num- 
bers, and,  being  dead,  they  cannot  add  to  their 
number  by  reproduction.  So  the  tissues  are  able 
to  cope  with  them,  producing  the  specific  anti- 
dotes which  neutralize  the  bacterial  poisons  and 
either  destroy  the  bacteria  themselves  or  render 
them  susceptible  to  the  attacks  of  the  leucocytes. 


58  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

The  substance,  known  only  through  its  effects, 
that  produces  the  latter  result  was  named 
"  opsonin  "  (from  a  Greek  word  meaning,  to  make 
palatable)  by  its  discoverer,  Sir  Almroth  Wright. 
A  test  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  leucocytes  eat 
any  given  germs  in  the  blood  of  a  patient — based 
on  an  actual  count — is  called  the  determination 
of  the  "  opsonic  index."  Where  opsonin  is  ab- 
sent, the  leucocytes  are  inactive;  where  present 
the  militant  defenders  launch  themselves  on  the 
enemy,  and  devour  them  with  avidity.  Any 
person  is  immune,  or  relatively  immune,  to  a 
given  bacterial  disease  if  his  opsonic  index  is 
high. 

If  your  system  contains  enough  of  the  opsonins, 
you  are  virtually  germ-proof. 

Wide  Scope  of  the  Vaccine  Treatment 

The  utility  of  the  vaccine  treatment  is  not  con- 
fined to  preventive  measures.  It  is  now  being 
applied  as  a  curative  measure  also,  after  patients 
are  stricken  with  disease.  The  utility  of  the 
method  is  particularly  obvious  in  the  case  of 
localized  infections.  Here,  let  us  say,  is  a  focus 
of  tubercle  germs  in  the  lungs,  or  of  germs  of 
malignant  endocarditis  in  the  lining  membrane 
of  the  heart.  The  local  tissues  fight  bravely,  but 
are  unable  to  gain  a  decisive  victory;  the  unwel- 
come microbes  hold  their  own,  or  increase  in 
number.  But  the  vaccine  therapist — he  is  usually 
termed  an  immunisator — comes  to  the  rescue,  by 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  59 

injecting  into  the  patient's  arm  or  leg  a  dead 
culture  of  microbes. 

This  sets  up  a  vigorous  local  production  of 
antidotes,  the  excess  of  which  enters  into  the  gen- 
eral blood-stream,  finds  its  way  to  the  local  tissues 
where  the  fight  is  going  on,  and  constitutes  a  re- 
inforcement that  may  turn  the  tide  of  battle. 

The  vaccine  treatment  has  great  popular 
interest,  not  only  because  of  results  achieved  with 
such  deadly  maladies  as  typhoid  fever,  tubercu- 
losis, and  pneumonia,  but  because  it  is  now  being 
applied  by  Sir  Almroth  Wright  and  his  followers 
to  the  treatment  of  a  great  number  of  minor  ail- 
ments which,  in  their  totality,  so  Sir  Almroth 
contends,  make  up  nine-tenths  of  human  disease. 

Common  colds,  recurrent  influenza,  sore  throat, 
chronic  bronchitis,  boils,  carbuncles,  ulcerated 
teeth,  and  even  stys  and  pimples  come  within  the 
range  of  the  new  treatment. 

In  stubborn  cases,  the  germs  used  to  make  the 
culture  are  taken  from  the  infected  area  of  the 
individual  patient  to  be  treated,  constituting  a 
so-called  autogenous  virus.  Specific  or  individual 
treatment  is  thus  carried  to  its  limits. 

The  results  are  sometimes  very  remarkable. 
When  the  treatment  has  come  into  general  use,  it 
will  be  possible,  Dr.  Wright  believes,  to  give  the 
average  man  immunity  from  the  particular  type 
of  minor  ailment  to  which  he  is  subject,  no  less 
than  to  give  him  protection  against  the  attacks 
of  the  more  virulent  microbes. 

Coupled  with  these  curative  and  immunizing 


60  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

methods  is  the  work  of  the  modern  sanitarian, 
who  effects  a  flank  movement  of  inestimable  im- 
port by  establishing  quarantine  service,  by  fumi- 
gating infected  quarters,  and  by  destroying  the 
living  carriers  of  germs — mosquitoes,  flies,  ticks, 
fleas,  bedbugs,  rats,  mice,  and  ground  squirrels. 
All  these  measures  look  to  the  single  end  of  mak- 
ing life  hard  for  the  noxious  microbe ;  and  enough 
has  already  been  accomplished  to  warrant  the 
prediction  that  these  infinitesimal  but  all-powerful 
enemies  of  our  race  will  play  a  far  less  important 
role  in  the  future  history  of  mankind  than  they 
have  played  in  the  past. 


Some  Rules  for  Health 

Not  to  be  misled  into  undervaluing  our  an- 
tagonist, however,  it  is  well  to  recall  that,  despite 
the  justly  applauded  triumphs  of  modern  medi- 
cine, microbic  diseases  still  cause  the  death  in  the 
United  States  of  at  least  one  hundred  individuals 
each  and  every  hour  of  the  day,  year  in  and  year 
out. 

With  such  a  menace  as  that  confronting  us,  it 
may  well  be  asked  what  any  given  individual  may 
do  to  safeguard  himself  and  his  family  against 
the  universal  enemy. 

I  shall  answer  the  inquiry  in  the  briefest  terms, 
with  a  few  practical  suggestions : 

Be  vaccinated  against  smallpox.  The  vaccine 
virus  is  developed  in  the  system  of  a  cow  or  calf. 
As  developed  by  modern  health  boards  it  is  free 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  61 

from  contamination,  and  it  gives  immunity  against 
a  disease  that  was  formerly  one  of  the  worst  of 
scourges,  claiming  one-tenth  of  the  population  by 
death.  Have  your  children  vaccinated  in  infancy, 
and  revaccinated  every  six  or  seven  years,  or 
whenever  there  is  possibility  of  infection. 

Be  inoculated  against  typhoid  fever,  if  you  have 
occasion  to  travel  in  a  region  where  hygiene  is 
not  under  scientific  control,  or  where  for  any 
reason  you  mistrust  the  sanitary  conditions  in 
general. 

Take  anti-rabic  treatment  at  the  nearest  Pas- 
teur Institute,  should  you  have  the  misfortune 
to  be  bitten  by  a  dog  or  cat  suspected  of  having, 
or  known  to  have,  hydrophobia.  The  anti-rabic 
virus  is  developed  in  the  system  of  a  rabbit.  Its 
efficacy  in  preventing  hydrophobia  or  rabies  is 
unquestionable ;  but  it  is  unavailing  as  a  curative 
measure  after  the  disease  has  actually  manifested 
itself.  Fortunately  rabies  has  a  long  incubation 
period,  so  there  is  time  to  take  the  preventive 
treatment. 

Treat  minor  wounds,  particularly  those  caused 
by  puncture  from  a  soiled  or  rusty  nail,  with  re- 
spect. Go  at  once  to  a  doctor  and  have  the  wound 
properly  treated.  It  is  foolhardy  to  take  chances 
with  the  bacillus  of  lockjaw. 

Have  your  physician  recommend  an  antiseptic 
spray  or  douche  for  nose  and  throat.  Keep  this  at 
hand  in  an  atomizer,  and  use  from  time  to  time, 
more  or  less  as  a  matter  of  toilet  routine;  but 
particularly  as  an  added  precaution  when  influ- 


62  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

enza  is  epidemic,  or  when  you  have  been  exposed 
to  bad  weather  or  subjected  to  fatigue. 

Never  sit  down  with  wet  feet  or  moist  apparel. 
If  your  stockings  have  been  damp,  remove  them 
at  once  when  you  get  home,  and  heat  the  feet 
thoroughly,  toasting  them  for  some  time  before 
stove,  radiator,  or  grate.  Put  on  dry  clothing, 
and  do  not  leave  the  fire  until  you  are  thoroughly 
warm.  Also  use  an  antiseptic — say,  peroxide  of 
hydrogen — with  thoroughness  as  a  mouth  wash. 
The  germs  of  pneumonia  sometimes  lodge  in  the 
mouth  without  doing  harm ;  but  a  slight  lowering 
of  the  bodily  temperature  may  enable  them  to 
develop,  and,  finding  their  way  to  the  lungs,  to 
set  up  the  inflammatory  condition  constituting 
pneumonia,  a  disease  that  is  responsible  for  more 
than  a  hundred  thousand  deaths  in  the  United 
States  each  year. 

Pneumonia  has  been  developed  experimentally 
in  fowls  by  having  them  stand  with  their  feet  in 
a  stream  of  cold  water.  You  are  in  similar  danger 
whenever  your  temperature  is  lowered  for  a  pro- 
longed period.  But  the  active  measures  above 
suggested  will  usually  ward  off  the  danger. 

If  you  are  persistently  subject  to  some  minor 
microbic  disorder,  such  as  boils,  pimples,  acute 
colds,  chronic  bronchitis,  consider  the  advisability 
of  taking  the  vaccine  treatment  to  fortify  your 
system  against  the  microbe  that  is  your  particular 
pet  aversion.  The  temperamental  condition  that 
makes  you  especially  susceptible  to  this  particular 
germ  may  perhaps  be  overcome  in  this  way.  The 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  63 

condition  of  the  system  that  leads  to  the  recur- 
rence of  boils  or  to  the  persistence  of  open  sores 
and  ulcerative  lesions,  is  peculiarly  amenable  to 
the  vaccine  treatment. 

Act  on  the  belief  that  in  the  last  analysis  the 
best  protection  against  the  microbes  is  the  rugged 
condition  of  your  own  system.  We  have  seen 
how  the  tissues  of  the  body  fight  any  noxious 
microbes  that  intrude  upon  them.  Let  it  be  under- 
stood that  the  vigor  and  efficiency  with  which  the 
tissues  act  in  this  defensive  campaign  depend 
very  largely  upon  the  healthy  tone  of  the  tissues 
themselves.  A  ruggedly  healthy  organism,  if  not 
subjected  to  the  depressing  effect  of  overexertion 
or  worriment,  may  be  practically  immune  to  al- 
most every  type  of  microbe. 

So  all  measurements  that  make  for  the  improve- 
ment of  general  bodily  health  are  germicidal 
measures. 

Eat  nourishing  food  in  sufficient  quantity,  but 
do  not  overeat. 

Get  as  much  fresh,  outdoor  air  as  you  can,  day 
and  night. 

Exercise  sufficiently  to  keep  your  muscles  in 
tone  and  your  blood  in  good  circulation.  Well- 
toned  muscle-cells  are  practically  germ-proof; 
and  an  active  blood-stream  scatters  any  focus  of 
intruding  microbes  so  widely  that  the  white  blood- 
corpuscles  and  organic  germicides  have  the  best 
chance  to  overcome  the  enemy. 

Bathe  regularly  and  rationally,  but  not  to  ex- 
cess. Use  tepid  or  warm  water,  but  end  always 


64  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

with  a  cold  spray  or  sponge  bath,  to  tone  the  skin. 
The  cold  spray,  properly  graduated,  is  a  skin- 
toughener  and  general  tonic  of  positive  value  not 
merely  in  the  prevention,  but  in  the  regular  treat- 
ment of  microbic  diseases,  including  in  particular 
tuberculosis. 

Avoid  the  two  great  depressants,  alcohol  and 
worry.  These  are  out-and-out  allies  of  the  mi- 
crobe. Alcohol  lowers  the  tone  of  the  system, 
decreases  the  power  of  resistance,  and  thus  invites 
microbic  diseases.  Athletes  in  training  never  use 
it.  Arctic  explorers  have  learned  that  it  handi- 
caps them.  People  in  everyday  life  who  wish  to 
maintain  maximum  efficiency,  including  maximum 
resistance  to  disease,  will  do  well  to  take  a  leaf 
from  the  experience-book  of  athlete  and  explorer. 

All  these  measures  look  to  the  combating  of  the 
microbic  hosts  after  they  actually  invade  your 
body.  But  it  is  equally  the  part  of  wisdom  to 
guard  your  body  as  much  as  may  be  against 
needless  exposure  to  attack.  However  good  your 
defensive  armor,  you  are  obviously  safest  when 
beyond  reach  of  the  enemy's  guns.  And  in  par- 
ticular you  should  guard  your  children,  whose 
immaturity  makes  them  peculiarly  susceptible, 
and  who  cannot  guard  themselves. 

Give  the  Sunlight  a  Chance 

A  prominent  channel  by  which  microbes  find 
entrance  into  our  bodies  is  the  air  we  breathe. 
Bacteria  exist  by  millions  in  every  pinch  of  dust 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  65 

of  the  city  street ;  they  swarm  in  the  dust  that  the 
whole  family  inhales  when  the  housemaid  sweeps 
or  beats  a  carpet.  They  settle  on  bread  as  it  comes 
from  the  bakery.  We  cannot  possibly  hope  to 
escape  ingesting  a  certain  number  of  them.  But 
there  are  ways  in  which  we  can  minimize  the 
number  and  in  large  measure  avert  the  danger. 

To  that  end,  it  should  be  known  to  everyone 
that  the  one  thing  which  no  hostile  bacterium  can 
face  unflinchingly  is  sunlight. 

The  beneficent  rays  of  the  sun,  which  give  life 
to  ordinary  plant-cells  and  set  them  in  action, 
blast  the  living  content  of  the  bacterial  cell,  like 
shafts  of  lightning. 

The  particular  light-beams  that  have  this  dis- 
astrous effect  on  the  microbe  are  the  short  waves 
beyond  the  visible  spectrum,  the  so-called  ultra- 
violet rays.  Medical  science  has  taken  advantage 
of  the  knowledge  that  these  rays  will  kill  bacteria, 
in  the  treatment  of  certain  local  infections.  The 
Finsen-ray  lamp,  by  which  the  local  tubercular  dis- 
ease known  as  lupus  may  be  cured,  utilizes  this 
ultraviolet  ray.  The  newest  type  of  Finsen  lamp 
operates  with  the  quartz  lamp  invented  by  Mr. 
Peter  Cooper  Hewitt;  which  lamp,  it  may  be 
added,  is  similarly  used  to  purify  water  and  milk, 
by  destroying  the  contaminating  bacteria. 

What  the  Finsen  and  Hewitt  lamps  thus  accom- 
plish on  a  small  scale  is  perpetually  done  in  a 
colossal  way  by  the  sun.  Whenever  sunlight 
penetrates  for  any  considerable  length  of  time,  the 
bacterial  inhabitants  are  destroyed.  If  it  were 


66  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

not  so— if  the  bacteria  could  develop  resistance  to 
the  blighting  influence  of  sunlight— mankind 
would  soon  find  the  contest  with  the  microbe  a 
hopeless  battle,  and  our  race  would  probably  dis- 
appear from  the  face  of  the  globe. 

There  follows  the  obvious  moral :  Let  there  be 
light  in  your  household  wherever  and  however 
you  can  manage  it. 

Keep  your  children  out  in  the  sunlight. 

If  you  live  in  the  city,  utilize  the  housetops. 

Also  let  the  outdoor  air,  sterilized  by  sunlight, 
into  your  dwelling  day  and  night.  Open-air  hos- 
pitals cure  thousands  of  advanced  cases  of  tuber- 
culosis. High  up  in  the  Alps  children  are  kept 
naked  in  the  sunlight,  out  of  doors,  when  the 
ground  is  covered  with  snow.  Such  heroic  treat- 
ment must  be  worked  up  to  gradually,  of  course ; 
but  in  the  end  the  children  enjoy  it ;  and  it  cures 
infections  that  resist  every  other  remedy. 

Open-air  treatment  in  the  sunlight,  combined 
with  judicious  exercise,  the  toning  effect  of  cool 
spray-baths,  and  the  right  food  and  plenty  of  it, 
will  cure  almost  any  case  of  tuberculosis  in  its 
early  stages.  And  the  tubercle  bacillus  is  more 
resistant  than  most  others  of  the  tribe. 


Pure  Food  and  Water 

Our  foodstuffs  furnish  another  obvious  medium 
through  which  the  microbes  may  be  conveyed 
into  our  bodies. 

Here  it  is  equally  obvious  that  attention  to 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  67 

cleanliness  and  a  few  common-sense  precautions 
may  go  a  long  way  toward  thwarting  the  enemy : 

Avoid  the  grocer  who  does  not  protect  his 
wares  from  flies. 

If  the  water  supply  is  doubtful,  boil  all  drinking 
water;  it  may  be  aerated  afterward  by  pouring 
from  one  receptacle  to  another,  that  it  may  not 
taste  flat.  Ice  that  has  been  stored  for  months 
is  usually  sterile,  but  not  always.  Mere  freezing 
for  a  short  time  does  not  kill  bacteria. 

It  is  safer  to  keep  the  water-pitcher  in  the  ice- 
box than  to  put  ice  in  the  water. 

All  other  questions  that  concern  germ-infected 
food  are  relatively  insignificant,  however,  in  com- 
parison with  the  problem  of  the  milk  supply.  In 
the  case  of  infants  it  is  of  course  the  only  prob- 
lem. Contaminated  milk  is  the  prime  source  of 
infection  which  results  in  the  death  in  infancy  of 
one-tenth  of  the  human  race. 

At  every  third  or  fourth  tick  of  the  clock  an 
infant  dies  whose  death  tells  of  the  victory  of  a 
bacterial  host  that  should  never  have  been  al- 
lowed to  find  its  way  into  the  victim's  digestive 
tract. 

Of  course  the  milk  supply  is  everywhere  under 
surveillance  of  health  boards  nowadays;  but  the 
official  inspectors  must  have  the  co-operation  of 
the  public  or  their  efforts  are  unavailing. 

What  most  people  do  not  understand  is  that  all 
milk  contains  bacterial  germs.  Even  before  it 
leaves  the  udder  of  the  cow,  bacteria  have  found 
their  way  to  it ;  others  are  added  in  the  process  of 


68  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

milking.  No  health  board  anywhere  pretends  to 
rule  that  milk  sold  with  its  sanction  shall  be  germ- 
free.  That  would  be  a  condition  impossible  to 
fulfil.  All  that  is  done  is  to  limit  the  permissible 
number. 

But  the  terms  of  the  regulations  are  far  from 
reassuring.  The  city  of  Boston  places  the  limit 
at  500,000  bacteria  to  the  cubic  centimeter  (about 
fifteen  drops).  Montclair,  New  Jersey,  after  a 
crusade  led  by  its  celebrated  surgeon,  Dr.  J.  S. 
Brown,  boasts  of  a  milk  supply  averaging  less 
than  100,000  germs  to  the  cubic  centimeter.  In 
New  York  City,  "  certified  "  milk  must  contain 
no  more  than  30,000  germs  to  the  cubic  centimeter, 
but  Dr.  Park's  investigation  showed  that  milk 
sold  in  the  shops  averaged  300,000  bacteria  per 
cubic  centimeter  in  the  coldest  weather,  about 
1,000,000  in  cool  weather,  and  5,000,000  in  hot 
weather. 

Drs.  Heinemann  and  Jordan  tested  market  milk 
in  Chicago,  the  microbe  population  of  which 
ranged  to  74,000,000  per  cubic  centimeter— about 
five  million  in  every  drop! 

Such  is  the  beverage  with  which  we  feed  our 
babies. 

These  astounding  figures  call  for  explanation. 
The  explanation  is  simple :  milk  at  ordinary  tem- 
perature is  supremely  good  food  for  bacteria. 
They  fairly  revel  in  it,  multiplying  inordinately. 
So  the  presence  of  vast  numbers  of  bacteria  in 
any  given  sample  of  milk  does  not  necessarily 
impugn  the  dairy  from  which  the  milk  came.  It 


The  Battle  of  the  Microbes  69 

only  proves  that  the  milk  has  been  kept  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  and  kept  in  a  warm  place. 

We  have  seen  something  as  to  the  fecundity  of 
bacteria.  So  it  need  not  surprise  us  that  a  sample 
of  milk  having  42,000  bacteria  in  a  given  quantity 
when  twenty-four  hours  old,  showed  12,200,000 
bacteria  in  the  same  sample  three  days  later.  But 
we  could  hardly  be  prepared  for  the  difference  in 
rapidity  with  which  the  same  bacteria  develop 
under  conditions  precisely  identical  in  regard  to 
everything  but  temperature. 

Thus  a  sample  of  milk  kept  at  4  degrees  centi- 
grade had  2,500  bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter  in 
twenty-four  hours;  while  another  sample  of  the 
same  milk  kept  at  13  degrees  had  developed  18,800 
bacteria ;  and  a  third  sample  at  20  degrees  showed 
45,000.  Thus  a  difference  in  temperature  of  only 
16  degrees  multiplied  the  growth  of  the  bacteria 
by  about  two  thousand  per  cent. 

It  would  appear,  then,  that  if  the  baby  is  to  be 
given  a  reasonably  fair  deal,  it  must  at  the  very 
least  be  supplied  with  perfectly  fresh  milk  (which 
is  obviously  impossible  for  the  city  dweller)  or 
else  milk  that  has  been  kept  at  all  times  at  approxi- 
mately the  temperature  of  ice. 

A  further  element  of  safety  is  added  if  the  milk, 
in  addition  to  being  pure  and  fresh,  has  been  pas- 
teurized. This  process  consists  merely  in  heating 
the  milk  to  a  temperature  of  60  degrees  centigrade 
(140  degrees  Fahrenheit)  for  twenty  minutes,  and 
then  rapidly  cooling  it.  This  does  not  free  the 
milk  absolutely  from  bacteria,  but  it  does  kill  the 


70  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

germs  of  typhoid  fever,  dysentery,  diphtheria, 
and  tuberculosis,  if  any  of  these  chance  to  be 
present. 

The  death-rate  in  an  infants'  hospital  has  been 
known  to  be  reduced  by  fifty  per  cent  in  a  single 
year  when  pasteurized  milk  was  introduced,  even 
though  the  milk  previously  used  was  fresh  milk 
from  a  selected  herd  pastured  on  the  hospital 
grounds. 

In  the  particular  hospital  in  question,  pasteur- 
izing the  milk,  without  any  other  change  in  diet  or 
hygiene,  is  estimated  to  have  saved  the  lives  of 
1,243  infants  in  seven  years. 

When  the  average  mother  learns  to  give  her 
baby  as  good  a  chance  as  the  waifs  received  in  the 
foundling  hospitals,  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents 
in  the  world  at  large  will  be  proportionately  re- 
duced. But  we  can  hardly  expect  this  until  the 
time  comes  when  the  average  man  and  woman 
take  as  much  interest  in  the  battle  of  the  microbes 
—which  vitally  -concerns  their  own  lives  and  the 
lives  of  their  children — as  they  now  take  in  the 
bickerings  of  political  parties,  the  records  of 
scandals  and  murders,  and  the  warring  of  Ser- 
vians, Turks,  and  Bulgars. 


m 

Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them 

THE  fly  that  is  crawling  across  the  bread-plate 
there  on  your  dinner  table  has  recently  come 
from  a  garbage  pile,  or  perhaps  from  the  putres- 
cent  carcass  of  a  dog.  The  reflection  is  not  appe- 
tizing, but  you  know  it  to  be  true.  There  are 
thousands  of  bacteria  on  the  body  and  feet  of  the 
fly.  Among  them  are  perhaps  some  germs  of 
typhoid  fever  or  dysentery  or  tuberculosis. 

You  are  quite  aware  of  this,  yet  you  tolerate 
the  fly,  and  run  the  needless  risk  of  becoming  its 
victim. 

Nor  is  the  fly  the  only  disease-carrier  that  in- 
vades your  household  more  or  less  through  your 
negligence  or  indifference.  Observe,  for  example, 
that  your  dog  is  scratching  himself.  You  know 
that  he  is  pestered  by  fleas,  and  the  thought  gives 
you  no  great  concern.  But  suppose  that  these 
fleas  chance  to  have  come  to  the  dog  from  the 
body  of  a  rat  that  is  infected  with  the  plague. 
Suppose,  then,  that  one  of  the  tiny  acrobats 
springs  to  the  body  of  your  child  as  it  plays  with 
the  dog.  As  a  sequel,  the  child  may  presently  de- 
velop a  mysterious  and  fatal  illness,  and  the  mal- 
ady may  spread  till  every  member  of  your  house- 
hold is  stricken. 

71 


72  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

"  The  thing  is  utterly  impossible,"  you  say. 
On  the  contrary,  it  lies  well  within  the  possibili- 
ties. 

You  must  have  read  not  long  ago  of  the  finding 
of  a  plague-infected  rat  at  New  Orleans  and  an- 
other at  Philadelphia.  Where  one  or  two  such 
rats  are  captured,  there  may  very  well  be  hun- 
dreds that  escape  detection.  Indeed,  it  would  be 
absurd  to  suppose  that  the  health  authorities  have 
captured  the  only  infected  specimens.  Nor  can  we 
suppose  that  the  two  ports  named  are  the  only 
ones  at  which  infected  rats  have  entered.  Once 
ashore,  the  rat  can  travel  fast  and  far  in  freight 
cars,  so  he  may  readily  invade  the  interior  of  the 
country. 

And  it  is  through  the  agency  of  the  flea  that  the 
virulent  disease  to  which  the  rat  is  subject  may 
be  transmitted  to  man. 


The  Plague  at  Our  Doors 

It  was  with  reference  to  this  disease,  and  to  the 
necessity  of  ridding  the  country  of  the  rats  and 
fleas  that  transmit  it,  that  the  Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  recently  uttered 
this  warning: 

"  The  sooner  the  country  realizes  that  it  is  face 
to  face  with  a  most  serious  problem,  the  better  it 
will  be  for  the  lives  of  the  people,  and  also  for 
commerce." 

This  most  authoritative  organ  of  the  medical 
profession  in  America  urges  that  the  danger  is 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them     73 

imminent,  and  that  it  will  be  greatly  enhanced 
when  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  brings 
an  influx  of  ships  from  the  western  coast  of  South 
America  to  our  ports. 

The  disease  in  question  is  known  as  bubonic 
plague.  It  is  a  disease  with  a  history.  When  it 
swept  across  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it 
devastated  entire  populations  and  it  was  remem- 
bered in  aftertime  as  the  "  Black  Death,"  or  the 
"  Great  Mortality." 

In  a  single  epidemic,  in  1348-1349,  it  is  esti- 
mated to  have  claimed  twenty-five  million  victims, 
about  one-fourth  of  the  entire  population  of 
Europe. 

The  epidemic  of  1665  caused  70,000  deaths  in 
London,  and  drove  the  survivors  to  the  open  fields 
outside  the  city. 

All  this  you  have  doubtless  heard ;  but  it  seems 
remote  and  impersonal.  You  know  that  in  those 
old  days  the  streets  of  a  city  were  filled  with 
refuse,  seeming  to  invite  disease ;  and  if  you  have 
given  the  matter  a  thought  you  have  assumed  that 
there  could  be  no  possible  repetition  of  such  dis- 
astrous epidemics  in  our  sanitary  age. 

Be  advised,  then,  that  recent  discoveries  tend 
to  disturb  the  composure  with  which  hitherto  most 
people  have  contemplated  the  records  of  the  Black 
Death.  It  is  now  known  that  the  disease  has  no 
direct  connection  with  filthy  or  unsanitary  condi- 
tions ;  that  its  cause  is  a  particular  bacillus  which 
flourishes  in  the  system  of  the  common  house  rat, 
and  which  may  be  transmitted  from  rat  to  rat,  or 


74  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

from  this  host  to  a  human  being,  by  that  familiar 
pest,  the  flea. 

Therefore,  any  region  where  the  rat  is  found 
may  be  subject  to  invasion  by  the  plague, — for  the 
rat  is  almost  never  without  its  insect  parasite. 
So  the  matter  comes  directly  home  to  you  and  to 
me. 

The  false  security  in  which  we  have  rested  has 
been  due  to  the  fact  that  there  has  been  no  severe 
epidemic  of  the  plague  in  Europe  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years. 

It  is  not  quite  clear  why  there  should  have  been 
such  long  intervals  of  quiescence.  But  there  is 
abundant  evidence  that  an  epidemic  is  now  im- 
pending, which,  if  it  is  not  combated,  might  read- 
ily rival  the  historic  outbreaks  that  have  made  the 
name  so  dreaded.  About  fifteen  years  ago  the 
disease  began  to  spread  from  an  infection  centre 
in  China.  In  1893  it  appeared  in  Hongkong,  and 
in  1896  in  Bombay. 

In  the  ten  succeeding  years  it  caused  about  six 
million  deaths  in  India. 

Then  the  disease  began  to  crop  out  in  the  west- 
ern hemisphere;  first  at  Santoz,  Brazil,  in  1899; 
then  at  San  Francisco. 

By  this  time  the  investigations  of  the  British 
Plague  Commission  in  India  had  established  the 
manner  of  transmission  of  the  disease.  It  was 
shown  that  infected  rats  might  transmit  the  dis- 
ease from  port  to  port,  even  though  no  human 
passenger  on  the  ship  became  infected.  So  war 
was  raged  on  the  rats  by  the  health  authorities  in 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    75 

San  Francisco.  More  than  a  million  were  killed 
in  1907,  and  many  were  found  to  be  infected  with 
the  plague  bacillus.  The  disease  was  spread, 
through  the  agency  of  fleas,  from  rats  to  the 
ground  squirrel;  and  in  a  few  cases,  through  the 
same  agency,  to  man. 

The  strenuous  warfare  on  the  rats  prevented 
anything  like  a  general  epidemic,  however;  and 
the  same  vigilance  at  other  ports  in  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  Australia,  and  Japan, 
has  been  similarly  rewarded.  But  the  plague  has 
very  recently  gained  a  foothold  in  Porto  Rico  and 
in  Cuba,  where  a  few  deaths  occurred  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1912,  leading  to  an  immediate  reinforce- 
ment of  the  rat-killing  squad  of  the  Health  De- 
partment. The  acuteness  of  the  danger  is  now 
emphasized  by  the  finding  of  infected  rats  in  our 
eastern  seaports. 

Of  course,  health  officers  everywhere  are  on  the 
qm  vivej  and  the  world-wide  systematic  attack  on 
the  rat  cannot  fail  of  some  results. 

Concrete  wharves  and  buildings  with  cement 
foundations  are  making  life  less  easy  for  the  ro- 
dents. In  some  regions,  as  the  Panama  Canal 
zone,  houses  are  built  on  pillars  of  concrete,  or 
on  posts  with  inverted  metal  shields  at  top,  in 
imitation  of  the  familiar  expedient  by  which  farm- 
ers protect  their  corn  cribs  against  the  same 
pests.  Ships  in  tropical  ports  are  sometimes  re- 
quired to  have  rat  guards  on  all  ropes  or  hawsers 
reaching  ashore. 

But  all  these  measures  must  be  supplemented 


76  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

with  the  co-operation  of  householders  in  general  if 
the  desired  extermination  of  the  rat  is  to  be 
effected.  And  until  we  are  well  rid  of  these  pro- 
lific little  rodents  we  shall  never  be  quite  free  from 
danger  of  a  world- wide  visitation  of  the  "  Black 
Death,"  for  it  is  obviously  impossible  to  eradi- 
cate the  flea  except  through  the  destruction  of  its 
host. 

Here,  then,  is  a  task  of  the  utmost  importance 
in  which  almost  everyone  can  lend  a  hand. 


Mosquitoes  and  Malaria 

"  An  interposition  of  Almighty  God  provoked 
by  the  sins  of  man  "  is  the  way  in  which  a  seven- 
teenth century  writer  refers  to  the  plague.  The 
twentieth  century  discovery  that  the  agent  of 
transmission  is  really  an  insignificant  insect  is 
one  of  the  important  items  of  new  knowledge 
through  which  our  entire  conception  of  the  spread 
of  epidemics  is  being  revolutionized. 

Of  course,  it  has  been  known  for  some  time  that 
most  diseases  are  due  to  definite  germs ;  that  you 
can  no  more  have  consumption  or  typhoid  fever 
or  diphtheria  unless  the  germs  of  these  diseases 
are  sown  in  your  system  than  the  farmer  can  raise 
crops  of  wheat  or  corn  or  rye  without  sowing  these 
grains  on  his  soil. 

But  it  is  only  within  the  past  few  years  that  we 
are  beginning  to  get  a  clear  notion  as  to  the  way 
in  which  the  transfer  of  germs  from  one  human 
being  to  another  is  carried  on. 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    77 

It  is  now  clear  that  there  are  many  kinds  of 
germs  which  do  not  float  in  the  air,  to  be  dissemi- 
nated by  every  chance  breeze,  but  which  must  be 
carried  from  person  to  person  as  definitely  as 
grain  is  carried  to  the  field  by  the  farmer. 

There  are  even  germs,  particularly  those  of  ani- 
mal nature  (so-called  protozoa, — to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  bacteria,  which  are  classified  in 
the  vegetable  kingdom),  that  depend  for  their  ex- 
istence upon  the  good  offices  of  a  particular  type 
of  insect,  and  must  perish  as  a  race  if  that  insect 
is  not  at  hand. 

As  the  best-known  example,  take  the  case  of  the 
microscopic  protozoal  organism,  called  a  Plasmo- 
dium,  that  is  the  sole  cause  of  malaria. 

This  pestiferous  microbe  leads  a  double  life  in 
a  very  literal  sense.  At  one  prolonged  stage  of 
its  history  it  maintains  a  celibate  existence, 
lodging  in  the  red  blood-corpuscles  of  the  human 
body,  and  multiplying  solely  through  the  forma- 
tion of  spore-like  divisions  of  its  substance.  The 
setting  free  of  a  generation  of  spores  ("  merozo- 
ites  "  they  are  called)  coincides  with  the  onset  of 
the  characteristic  chill  that  marks  the  disease. 

The  germ  thus  makes  its  human  host  most  un- 
comfortable, and  even  causes  the  death  of  many 
thousands  of  individuals  each  year ;  yet  the  plas- 
modium  itself  does  not  come  to  its  own,  so  to  speak, 
so  long  as  it  remains  in  the  human  system.  It 
completes  its  life-cycle  only  when  sucked  into  the 
stomach  of  a  mosquito. 

Nor  can  any  and  every  mosquito  serve  the  pur- 


78  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

pose :  it  is  only  mosquitoes  of  the  genus  Anopheles 
that  can  serve  as  host. 

But  in  the  system  of  this  particular  insect,  the 
plasmodium  takes  on  a  new  lease  and  a  new  man- 
ner of  life,  multiplying  sexually,  and  developing 
a  generation  of  offspring  that  will  lodge  in  the 
salivary  glands  of  their  host,  thence  to  be  trans- 
mitted to  any  human  subject  that  the  mosquito 
chances  to  assail. 

Such  being  the  life  history  of  the  malaria  germ, 
it  follows  that  by  destroying  this  particular  type 
of  mosquito  we  should  eliminate  the  plasmodium 
race  and  rid  mankind  of  the  widely  prevalent 
disease  malaria. 

You  may  reside  if  you  wish  on  the  borders  of  the 
most  "  miasmatic  "  swamp;  wade  in  or  imbibe  its 
waters;  breathe  its  air  day  and  night — and  there 
is  not  the  remotest  chance  that  you  will  be  stricken 
with  malaria  so  long  as  you  are  guarded  against 
the  attacks  of  the  mosquitoes  of  the  genus 
Anopheles.  Such  is  the  accepted  and  demon- 
strated fact  to-day. 

The  ferreting  out  of  the  secret  was  chiefly  done 
by  Dr.  Ronald  Ross,  of  the  British  Army  in  India, 
as  recently  as  1897.  Subsequent  practical  experi- 
ments of  Drs.  Rignami  in  Rome  and  Manson  in 
London  were  required  to  overcome  the  incredulity 
of  the  medical  profession. 

The  suggestion  that  a  mosquito  may  play  this 
extraordinary  role  had  indeed  been  made  some 
years  earlier  by  the  American  physician,  Dr.  A. 
F.  A.  King;  but  proof  was  not  then  forthcoming 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    79 

and  the  suggestion  was  ignored  or  openly  dis- 
credited. 

Now  that  the  facts  are  known,  every  community 
should  think  it  worth  while  to  rid  itself  of  these 
pests,  by  curtailing  their  breeding  places.  You 
can  do  your  share  by  pouring  kerosene  on  the  sur- 
face of  any  stagnant  pool  in  your  neighborhood. 
You  should  also  see  that  no  gutters  or  rain  bar- 
rels or  other  receptacles  of  water  are  permitted  to 
remain  uncovered. 

Even  an  old  tin  can  may  offer  a  breeding  place 
from  which  myriads  of  malaria-carriers  will  come 
forth. 

The  Yellow  Fever  Mosquito 

Proof  that  the  mosquito  is  the  carrier  of  the 
germs  of  malaria  served  to  give  a  new  aspect  of 
plausibility  to  a  theory  first  put  forward  by  Dr. 
Nott  of  New  Orleans  as  long  ago  as  1848,  and 
prominently  advocated  by  Dr.  Charles  J.  Finlay 
of  Havana  in  1881,  to  the  effect  that  the  virulent 
disease  yellow  fever  is  also  transmitted  by  a  mos- 
quito. 

At  the  time  when  the  American  authorities  set 
about  renovating  Havana,  no  one  took  much  stock 
in  the  theory,  except  Dr.  Finlay.  It  seemed  clear 
enough  to  all  other  observers  that  yellow  fever  is 
transmitted  through  the  air,  or  at  least  through 
the  medium  of  clothing,  bedding,  and  the  like. 

But  Dr.  Finlay 's  insistence  led  to  an  official  test 
of  his  unlikely  theory,  under  direction  of  a  Com- 


8o  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

mission  comprising  the  U.  S.  Army  surgeons,  Drs. 
Eeed,  Carroll,  Agramonte,  and  Lazear, — the  last 
named  of  whom,  it  should  not  be  forgotten,  lost 
his  life  in  the  course  of  the  experimental  investi- 
gation. 

Many  lives  were  hazarded.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise,  because  the  germ  of  yellow  fever  had 
not  been  isolated,  hence  microscopic  tests,  such  as 
were  used  with  the  parasite  of  malaria,  could  not 
be  employed.  It  was  necessary  to  expose  human 
beings  to  the  conditions  of  infection,  and  await 
results. 

Volunteers  from  among  the  American  soldiers 
quartered  in  Cuba  were  not  wanting.  The  mem- 
bers of  one  group  were  confined  in  rooms  contami- 
nated with  the  effects  of  victims  of  yellow  fever ; 
subject  to  the  usual  supposed  channels  of  infec- 
tion, but  rigidly  guarded  against  the  attacks  of 
mosquitoes  by  the  careful  screening  of  their  quar- 
ters. These  men  remained  free  from  disease. 

Members  of  another  group  were  kept  away  from 
all  contaminating  surroundings,  but  were  allowed 
to  be  bitten  by  mosquitoes  that  had  had  access  to 
yellow  fever  patients.  Six  out  of  seven  of  these 
men  promptly  developed  the  fever. 

The  tests  were  so  definite  as  to  remove  all  doubt. 
The  carrier  of  yellow  fever  was  found  to  be  a  mos- 
quito of  the  genus  Stegomyia.  When  this  mos- 
quito is  eliminated  or  excluded,  yellow  fever  dis- 
appears. Abundant  proof  of  this  has  been  given 
in  Cuba,  and  also  in  the  Panama  Canal  zone.  In 
the  latter  region,  under  the  able  supervision  of 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    81 

Colonel  Gorgas,  the  draining  of  pools  and  the 
netting  of  porches  and  windows  resulted  in  trans- 
forming a  pest-ridden  zone  into  a  place  of  salu- 
brity and  health. 

No  such  transformation,  perhaps,  was  ever  be- 
fore or  elsewhere  effected  in  so  short  a  time  and 
as  the  direct  result  of  a  new  and  unexpected  sci- 
entific discovery. 


The  Typhoid  Fly 

The  trenchant  if  inelegant  slogan  "  Swat  the 
fly!  "  has  become  so  familiar  that  one  is  likely  to 
forget  how  recent  is  the  discovery  that  the  fly  has 
an  important  share  in  the  transmission  of  disease. 

It  is  only  a  few  years  since  this  possible  source 
of  contagion  was  utterly  unheeded,  even  by  the 
medical  profession.  As  recently  as  1898  our  sol- 
diers in  the  Cuban  War  were  permitted  to  die  by 
hundreds  of  typhoid  fever  because  no  one  thought 
to  take  the  precaution  to  render  the  dejecta  of  in- 
fected persons  innocuous  or  to  put  infected  matter 
beyond  the  reach  of  flies. 

And  so,  as  has  been  said,  the  common  house  fly 
rather  than  Spanish  bullets  was  responsible  for 
the  chief  mortality  in  our  Cuban  army.  But  the 
like  of  this  will  not  occur  in  any  warfare  of  the 
future ;  for  the  insect  has  now  been  re-christened 
the  "  typhoid  fly,"  and  everyone  realizes  what 
danger  may  attend  its  visitations. 

The  re-christening  was  due,  I  believe,  to  Dr.  L. 
0.  Howard,  our  expert  Government  Entomologist, 


82  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

who  has  done  more  than  anyone  else  to  call  public 
attention  to  the  history  of  this  familiar  but  little 
understood  insect.  The  new  name  is  highly  appro- 
priate, in  that  it  serves  to  call  attention  to  a  chief 
danger  with  which  the  insect  menaces  us.  It 
should  be  understood,  however,  that  the  fly  is  not 
the  host  of  the  typhoid  bacillus  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  Anopheles  mosquito  is  the  host  of  the 
germ  of  malaria. 

The  fly  becomes  an  involuntary  carrier  of  dis- 
ease germs  merely  through  accidental  contamina- 
tion of  its  feet  or  wings  or  body  or  buccal  appa- 
ratus. 

It  transfers  quite  impartially  any  germs  that 
chance  to  adhere  to  it. 

Microscopic  examination  has  shown  that  mil- 
lions of  bacteria  may  sometimes  be  found  on  the 
body  of  a  single  fly.  Ordinarily,  these  are  of  more 
or  less  innocuous  species.  That  typhoid  germs  are 
sometimes  among  the  number  is  merely  due  to  the 
filth-frequenting  habits  of  the  insect.  The  germs 
of  tuberculosis  are  also  susceptible  of  conveyance ; 
likewise  those  of  diphtheria  and  cholera.  Profes- 
sor Nuttall  has  shown  that  the  fly  may  not  only 
ingest  the  germs  of  bubonic  plague,  but  may  itself 
fall  victim  to  the  disease. 

The  best  protection  against  danger  from  the  fly 
would  obviously  be  found  in  extermination  of  the 
insects  themselves.  But  this  offers  tremendous 
difficulties. 

A  single  fly  that  finds  access  to  refuse  heap  or 
garbage  pail  may  deposit  a  complement  of  about 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    83 

120  eggs  that  will  hatch  to  maggots  in  five  days, 
and  appear  as  adult  flies  in  five  days  more.  The 
life-cycle  is  so  short,  the  fecundity  of  the  insect 
so  great,  that  the  progeny  of  a  single  female  in  a 
summer  season  would  if  unrestrained  reach  unbe- 
lievable numbers. 

Here  are  the  figures,  according  to  someone  who 
has  taken  the  trouble  to  make  the  computation: 
1,096,181,249,311,720,000,000,000,000. 

When  we  reflect  that  (estimating  10,000  flies  to 
the  quart)  this  would  represent  about  340  billion 
bushels  of  flies  for  each  man,  woman,  and  child  in 
the  United  States,  it  would  appear  that  the  out- 
look for  a  fly-catching  crusade  of  extermination 
is  not  encouraging. 

And  the  matter  seems  quite  disheartening  when 
the  computer  further  assures  us  that  if  food  and 
breeding  places  were  provided  and  enemies 
evaded,  the  progeny  of  a  single  fly  in  unchecked 
development  through  twelve  generations  may  be 
estimated  as  making  a  mass  of  flies  measuring 
268,778,165,861  cubic  miles,  or  considerably  more 
than  the  total  size  of  the  earth. 

In  the  light  of  such  figures,  fly  "  swatting," 
though  commendable  enough  in  itself,  must  seem 
an  inadequate  method  of  extermination. 

But  fortunately  more  effective  measures  are 
available.  A  recent  editorial  in  the  Medical 
Record,  from  which  some  of  the  figures  just  given 
are  quoted,  suggests  the  slogan  * '  No  filth,  no  flies 
— and  no  disease."  It  urges  that  we  follow  the  fly 
to  her  breeding  place — seldom  more  than  300  to 


84  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

500  feet  away — and  make  that  place  decent  and 
sanitary.  We  are  told  that  we  must  get  rid  of 
"  the  unsanitary  closet,  the  manure  heap,  the  un- 
covered garbage  can,  the  putrescent  dead  dog  and 
horse  in  the  public  highway.  All  refuse  and  de- 
caying material  and  all  vegetable  and  table  waste 
should  be  removed  and  be  burned  or  covered  with 
lime  or  kerosene  oil.  Stable  manure  should  be  put 
into  tight  pits  or  vaults;  a  barrel  of  chloride  of 
lime  to  be  constantly  at  hand,  from  which  each 
deposit  of  manure  should  be  sprinkled." 

If  every  citizen  would  constitute  himself  a  com- 
mittee of  one  to  help  carry  out  such  a  reform  as 
this,  we  should  soon  abate  the  fly  nuisance;  and 
thousands  of  human  lives  would  be  saved  that  are 
now  needlessly  sacrificed.  But  the  co-operation  of 
each  and  every  individual  is  absolutely  essential. 
One  family  that  is  careless  about  the  disposal  of 
garbage  can  breed  more  flies  than  an  entire  com- 
munity can  kill. 

The  very  least  you  can  do  is  to  make  sure  that 
you  are  not  guilty  of  such  a  crime  against  your 
neighbor. 

Ticks  and  Other  Creepers 

It  is  only  a  few  years  since  English  text-books 
in  use  in  the  schools — seeking  to  carry  out  the  old 
delusive  idea  that  everything  must  be  of  value  to 
man — conveyed  the  edifying  information  that 
"  the  fly  keeps  the  warm  air  pure  and  wholesome 
by  its  swift  and  zigzag  flight." 

I  presume  this  antediluvian  conceit  is  now  sup- 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    85 

pressed;  but  one  may  still  hear  the  fly  defended 
on  occasion — and  somewhat  less  farcically — as  a 
scavenger.  There  are  sundry  creeping  suctorial 
insects,  however,  that  so  far  as  I  know  have  never 
found  an  apologist — except  possibly  on  the  ground 
of  being  provided  to  test  man's  temper  and  en- 
durance. 

Of  this  unwholesome  company  are  the  ticks  of 
various  species.  These  obscure  creepers  are 
known  to  have  importance  as  germ-carriers, 
largely  in  connection  with  tropical  diseases  of  cat- 
tle. They  jeopardize  the  pocketbook,  if  not  the 
life,  of  the  American  farmer ;  for  the  virulent  cat- 
tle disease  known  as  Texas  fever,  which  costs  our 
cattle-raisers  many  hundred  thousand  dollars  an- 
nually, is  due  to  a  protozoal  germ  that  is  trans- 
mitted solely,  so  far  as  is  known,  by  ticks. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  matter  is  that  the 
germs  are  not  directly  transmitted  from  one  beef 
creature  to  another  by  any  individual  tick.  The 
insect,  having  taken  its  fill  of  blood,  drops  to  the 
ground,  and  there  deposits  its  eggs.  The  young 
that  come  from  these  eggs  make  their  way  to  the 
bodies  of  other  cattle,  and  inoculate  them  with 
germs  acquired  in  this  curious  congenital  fashion. 

Thus  cattle  may  acquire  the  disease  by  grazing 
in  an  "  infected  "  pasture,  without  coming  in  con- 
tact with  any  infected  animal. 

To  prevent  the  possibility  of  such  infection,  it 
is  customary  before  shipping  cattle  from  the 
"  fever  zone  "  to  make  them  swim  through  a  tank 
of  petroleum,  which  kills  the  ticks. 


86  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

These  curious  facts  have  double  interest  because 
they  were  first  demonstrated  by  two  American  in- 
vestigators, Drs.  Smith  and  Kilborne,  who  thereby 
proved  for  the  first  time  that  a  protozoal  disease 
may  be  transmitted  by  a  blood-sucking  insect.  A 
new  era  in  medicine  dates  from  that  discovery, 
made  in  1898. 

An  early  result  of  the  new  knowledge  was  to 
cast  suspicion  on  the  familiar  wood-tick  as  a  pos- 
sible carrier  of  disease.  It  was  suggested  by  Drs. 
Wilson  and  Chowning,  and  demonstrated  pres- 
ently by  Dr.  H.  T.  Rickets,  that  the  wood-tick  is 
the  carrier  of  the  very  fatal  malady  known  as 
Rocky  Mountain  spotted  fever. 

In  Montana  this  disease  is  much  dreaded,  inas- 
much as  it  causes  the  death  of  about  seventy  per 
cent  of  the  persons  who  become  infected. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  disease  is  largely  due  to 
the  investigations  of  medical  officers  of  the  U.  S. 
Public  Health  and  Marine  Hospital  Service.  One 
of  these,  Dr.  T.  B.  McClintic,  himself  fell  victim 
to  the  disease,  adding  his  name  to  the  already  long 
list  of  martyrs  in  the  cause  of  science. 

The  newspaper  reports  of  Dr.  McClintic 's  death 
(which  occurred  August  13,  1912),  and  of  the 
Congressional  bill  for  the  relief  of  his  widow  in- 
troduced by  Senator  Myers,  of  Montana,  gave  the 
general  public  its  first  knowledge  of  Rocky  Moun- 
tain fever,  which  has  hitherto  been  prevalent 
chiefly  in  Montana,  Idaho,  and  Nevada.  It  should 
be  understood,  however,  that  there  seems  no  rea- 
son why  the  disease  should  not  invade  any  region 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    87 

of  the  country  to  which  infected  ticks  chanced  to 
be  conveyed;  so  the  effort  to  eliminate  the  ticks, 
in  which  Dr.  McClintic  lost  his  life,  is  an  enter- 
prise having  first-hand  interest  for  all  of  us. 


The  Fly  that  Carries  Sleeping  Sickness 

Very  recently  Dr.  G.  H.  F.  Nuttall,  the  Ameri- 
can Professor  of  Biology  at  Cambridge  Univer- 
sity, has  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  entire 
tribe  of  ticks,  with  reference  to  their  germ-carry- 
ing habits. 

He  finds  that  the  insects  play  an  all-important 
role  in  the  spread  of  various  allied  protozoal  ani- 
mal diseases  of  the  Tropics. 

In  at  least  one  case  a  protozoal  germ  closely 
similar  to  those  that  cause  the  cattle  fevers  may 
flourish  in  the  blood  of  man,  causing  the  deadly 
malady  known  as ' '  sleeping  sickness. ' '  The  agent 
of  transmission  here,  however,  is  not  a  tick  but  a 
small  winged  insect  called  the  tsetse  fly.  Unlike 
the  typhoid  fly,  this  insect  bites  through  the  skin 
and  sucks  the  blood,  and  thus  may  transfer  the 
germ  of  sleeping  sickness  (called  a  Trypanosome) 
from  one  human  subject  to  another. 

Sleeping  sickness  is  confined  to  the  tropical  re- 
gions of  Africa,  presumably  because  of  the  tsetse 
fly's  restricted  habitat;  but  it  is  so  prevalent  and 
virulent  a  plague  that  entire  regions  are  some- 
times depopulated  owing  to  its  ravages. 

The  disease  has  spread  over  new  areas  in  recent 
years.  It  is  estimated  to  have  caused  in  the  neigh- 


88  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

borhood  of  half  a  million  deaths  among  the  natives 
of  the  Congo  region  in  the  decade  1896-1905.  In 
some  regions  of  Senegambia,  from  30  to  50  per 
cent,  of  the  population  of  a  village  are  found  to  be 
infected;  and  infection  in  this  case  means  sure 
death. 

Persistent  efforts  have  been  made,  particularly 
by  Professor  Ehrlich,  to  find  a  remedy  that  will 
cure  sleeping  sickness,  but  with  doubtful  success. 
To  be  bitten  by  an  infected  tsetse  fly  is  to  receive 
a  death  sentence  that  cannot  be  evaded.  Even 
should  a  remedy  be  found  that  will  cure  the  dis- 
ease, this  would  obviously  be  only  a  tentative 
measure. 

Nothing  short  of  the  extermination  of  the  tsetse 
fly  itself  can  make  civilization  possible  in  the  re- 
gions it  now  frequents. 

The  undoubted  fact  that  progress  is  thus  held 
in  check  by  a  tiny  insect  may  be  pondered  in  con- 
nection with  Dr.  Ross's  suggestion  that  the  de- 
cadence of  civilization  in  ancient  Greece  may  have 
been  due  to  the  encroachments  of  the  malaria- 
transmitting  mosquito. 

Who  until  very  recently  suspected  such  influ- 
ences as  these  in  history?  Who  would  have  dared 
suggest  that  the  proboscis  of  a  tiny  insect  may  be 
mightier  than  sword  or  pen?  Yet  the  validity  of 
such  a  claim  becomes  increasingly  evident  as  we 
study  the  recent  discoveries  in  relation  to  the 
transmission  of  disease.  In  the  light  of  what  is 
now  known,  it  is  not  too  much  to  assert  that  insects 
of  two  or  three  species  have  undoubtedly  been  re- 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    89 

sponsible  for  more  human  deaths  in  modern  Eu- 
rope than  all  the  implements  of  warfare  that  man 
has  devised. 

As  to  venomous  serpents  and  savage  beasts, 
their  entire  toll  of  human  lives  since  history  be- 
gan is  a  negligible  quantity  in  comparison. 


The  Ubiquitous  Bedbug 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  worst  offender  of  all 
is  an  insect  that  until  very  recently  has  scarcely 
been  under  suspicion.  I  refer  to  that  most  un- 
popular of  creeping  things,  an  object  of  abhor- 
rence to  every  conscientious  housewife,  which  the 
squeemish  writer  commonly  refers  to  as  Cimex 
lectularius,  but  which  may  best  be  unmasked  un- 
der its  plain  every-day  name  of  bedbug. 

The  case  against  this  familiar  if  unwelcome  co- 
resident with  man  is  convincing  and  utterly  con- 
demnatory. It  has  been  shown  by  Dr.  Patton,  of 
the  Indian  Medical  Service,  that  the  fatal  tropical 
disease  known  as  "  kala-azar  "  may  be  transmit- 
ted by  the  bite  of  the  bedbug;  and  the  Russian 
investigator,  Dr.  D.  T.  Verjbitski,  has  demon- 
strated conclusively  that  this  insect  may  transmit 
the  germs  of  the  bubonic  plague  quite  as  effec- 
tively as  does  the  flea. 

Not  only  may  the  insect  transmit  the  germs  di- 
rectly in  biting;  but  on  linen  soiled  by  the  insects 
or  contaminated  by  their  crushed  bodies  the 
plague  germs  may  retain  life  and  virulence  for  a 
term  of  at  least  five  months. 


go  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Of  this  discovery,  Dr.  J.  V.  Manning,  writing 
recently  in  the  Medical  Record,  says  that  to  the 
student  of  preventive  medicine  "  Verjbitski's 
demonstration  that  bedbugs  transmit  blood-borne 
diseases  is  the  most  revolutionary  discovery  made 
since  Pasteur  announced  the  etiology  of  anthrax. 
This  illuminating  thesis  lightens  the  path  along 
which  science  has  floundered  in  search  of  the  com- 
mon mode  of  transmission  of  acute  epidemic  dis- 
ease. It  would  appear  that  any  disease  whose 
germ  or  virus  is  liberated  in  the  blood  at  any  stage 
of  the  attack  may  be  transmitted  by  the  ubiquitous 
bedbug." 

Among  the  common  disease  specifically  named 
as  probably  transmissible  by  this  insect  are  infan- 
tile paralysis,  measles,  smallpox,  and  scarlet 
fever.  A  complete  list  would  probably  include,  as 
Dr.  Manning  suggests,  practically  every  infectious 
blood  disease. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  and  considering  the  habits 
of  the  bedbug,  it  seems  not  unlikely  that  this  insect 
may  be  the  most  important  of  all  agencies  for  the 
spread  of  epidemic  diseases,  particularly  in  the 
tenement  regions  of  cities.  Hiding  in  the  cracks 
and  crevices,  and  passing  from  one  apartment  to 
another,  the  insects  may  very  well  be  supposed  to 
carry  the  germs  of  infection — as  of  infantile 
paralysis  or  measles  or  diphtheria — from  one  fam- 
ily to  another  throughout  a  crowded  block. 

Nor  must  we  overlook  the  extent  to  which  the 
insect  may  effect  involuntary  migrations  from 
one  social  stratum  to  another. 


Messengers  of  Death  and  How  to  Outwit  Them    91 

Unwelcome  as  the  thought  may  be,  it  is  true  that 
there  is  a  constant  distribution,  and  that  the  insect 
may  gain  access  to  the  best-regulated  household 
in  spite  of  every  reasonable  precaution,  as  a  recent 
Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Entomological  Bureau  has 
declared. 

Says  Dr.  Manning:  "  The  physician  returns 
from  the  slum  case  and  the  lawyer  from  the  court 
where  bedbugs  swarm;  the  maid  takes  her  half- 
day  in  a  tenement  home,  the  daily  paper  is  dis- 
tributed by  a  tenement  dweller,  the  hand  laundry 
often  returns  from  a  tenement  district;  the  vaca- 
tion is  spent  in  unfumigated  summer  camps,  and 
the  traveler's  bag  or  trunk  is  a  usual  hiding-place 
for  Cimex ;  men,  women,  and  children  of  all  social 
classes  come  in  close  contact  in  railroad  stations, 
transit  lines,  theatres,  schools,  moving  picture  en- 
tertainments, summer  amusements,  and  public 
inns." 

Hence  the  possible  invasion  of  every  home  by 
the  "  retiring  but  ubiquitous  bedbug." 

All  of  which  makes  very  unpleasant  reading,  but 
is  pre-eminently  important  because  it  brings  to 
mind  a  vivid  picture  of  dangers  to  which  everyone 
is  more  or  less  subject,  but  which  until  very  re- 
cently no  one  had  suspected. 

Of  course,  the  remedy  suggests  itself:  the  bed- 
bug must  be  eliminated,  just  as  the  mosquito,  the 
fly,  and  the  flea-laden  rat  must  be  eliminated,  in  the 
interests  of  public  health. 

But  how  is  the  feat  to  be  accomplished? 

Undoubtedly  the  task  presents  difficulties  of  no 


ga  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

common  order.  Tentative  measures  are  familiar 
to  every  housewife.  But  efforts  of  a  more  com- 
prehensive character  are  necessary ;  and  the  mat- 
ter is  so  important  that  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Ento- 
mology has  recently  issued  a  Bulletin  telling  in 
detail  how  to  fumigate  a  house  with  hydrocyanic 
acid  gas,  which  will  penetrate  to  the  remotest 
crevices  and  destroy  every  living  thing.  Measures 
so  heroic  are  obviously  for  the  use  of  Health  Offi- 
cers, not  for  private  individuals ;  but  a  full  recog- 
nition of  the  dangers  to  which  Cimex  lectularius 
subjects  us  will  lead  citizens  in  general  to  co- 
operate with  the  authorities  in  exterminating  this 
deadly  pest. 


IV 

Is  Your  Brain  All  Right? 

T  long  ago  a  novel  attraction  held  the  atten- 
tion  for  an  entire  week  of  thousands  of 
visitors  at  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
It  was  called  the  Mental  Hygiene  Conference  and 
Exhibit.  Nothing  like  it  had  ever  previously  been 
seen  anywhere  in  the  world.  It  had  to  do  with  a 
subject  that  most  people  have  never  given  a 
thought,  yet  a  subject  of  paramount  importance 
to  all  of  us — the  question  of  conserving  mental 
health  and  efficiency ;  your  mental  health  and  mine, 
and  the  mental  health  of  our  children. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  a  majority  of  the  thousands 
who  visited  the  exhibition  learned  more  in  a  half 
hour  about  the  brain  and  mind;  about  mental 
health  and  mental  aberration;  about  ministering 
to  the  mind  diseased  and  training  the  normal 
mind,  than  they  had  ever  known  before. 

As  Dr.  Stewart  Paton,  of  Princeton,  who  pre- 
pared the  main  exhibit,  has  said,  the  display 
seemed  to  bring  home  to  many  observers  with  the 
force  of  a  new  discovery  the  fact  that  human  be- 
ings have  brains. 

That  was  a  timely  revelation.  We  have  all 
learned  a  great  deal  in  recent  years  about  the  care 
of  the  body;  about  the  prevention  and  cure  of 

93 


94  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

physical  diseases.  It  is  time,  then,  that  we  should 
be  made  to  realize  that  even  the  most  robust  phys- 
ical health  is  not  worth  having  unless  mental 
health — which  is  equivalent  to  health  of  brain — 
goes  with  it. 

The  novel  exhibit  which  emphasized  this  lesson 
by  mechanism  and  picture  and  diagram  was  pre- 
pared under  the  auspices  of  a  remarkable  organi- 
zation called  the  National  Committee  for  Mental 
Hygiene.  The  conference  feature,  involving  the 
discussion  of  a  wide  range  of  cognate  topics  by 
distinguished  authorities,  owed  its  success  in  large 
measure  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Everett  S.  Elwood, 
executive  secretary  of  the  Committee  on  Mental 
Hygiene  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association  of 
New  York. 

The  movement  thus  inaugurated  is  part  of  a 
general  campaign  of  the  National  Committee  for 
Mental  Hygiene,  designed,  in  the  words  of  the 
president  of  the  organization,  Dr.  Lewellys  F. 
Barker,  of  Johns  Hopkins,  *'  to  secure  human 
brains  so  naturally  endowed  and  so  nurtured  that 
people  will  think  better,  feel  better,  and  act  better 
than  they  do  now."  The  Committee  having  this 
ambitious  aim  has  a  membership  that  includes  col- 
lege and  university  presidents,  from  Massachu- 
setts to  California,  noted  clergymen,  Protestant 
and  Catholic;  distinguished  medical  specialists, 
superintendents  of  hospitals  for  the  insane,  and 
a  number  of  well-known  business  men  and  social 
reformers. 

Notwithstanding   its   distinguished   personnel, 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  95 

however,  perhaps  nothing  else  about  the  organiza- 
tion is  more  remarkable  than  the  story  of  its 
origin. 

The  Origin  of  the  Movement 

The  National  Committee,  which  has  so  soon  at- 
tained national  standing  and  importance,  is  the 
direct  outgrowth  of  the  efforts  of  a  single  indi- 
vidual. Its  founder  is  Mr.  Clifford  W.  Beers,  a 
Yale  graduate  who  had  the  misfortune  while  still 
a  young  man  to  suffer  a  prolonged  mental  illness 
that  led  to  his  confinement  for  a  period  of  more 
than  three  years  in  hospitals  for  the  insane.  His 
varied  experiences  there — of  which  he  retains  a 
very  vivid  and  detailed  recollection — led  him,  af- 
ter his  recovery  and  restoration  to  normal  society, 
to  take  up  a  crusade  for  the  betterment  of  asylum 
management,  and  in  particular  for  the  prevention 
of  insanity. 

So  clearly  and  cogently  did  he  relate  his  experi- 
ences, and  so  sanely  did  he  suggest  remedies,  that 
he  was  able  to  gain  the  attention  of  such  men  as 
the  late  Professor  William  James  and  the  Hon. 
Joseph  Choate,  who  urged  him  to  write  out  his 
story.  He  did  so;  the  result  being  published  as 
a  book  under  title  of  A  Mind  That  Found  Itself. 

Professor  James  pronounced  the  book  "  irre- 
proachable in  style,  in  temper,  and  in  good  taste; 
fit  to  remain  in  literature  as  a  classic  account 
'  from  within  '  of  an  insane  person's  psychology; 
— a  narrative  of  absorbing  interest  which  reads 
like  fiction  but  is  not  fiction. ' ' 


g6  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Professor  Thomas  K.  Lounsbury,  who  also  read 
the  manuscript,  characterized  it  as  a  well-told 
human  document  having  interest  "  far  exceeding 
that  of  any  novel  that  I  have  read  in  a  long,  long 
time." 

President  Schurman,  of  Cornell,  described  it  as 
a  wonderful  volume,  showing  literary  gifts  which, 
curiously  enough,  might  never  have  come  to  light 
but  for  the  author's  almost  tragic  experiences. 
"  A  hospital  for  the  insane,"  he  declared,  "  is  the 
last  place  in  the  world  one  would  have  selected  as 
a  school  of  liberal  culture,  yet  in  Mr.  Beers'  case 
it  meant  a  good  deal  more  for  literary  develop- 
ment than  a  college  does  for  the  generality  of 
students." 

Such  a  narrative  naturally  brought  the  story 
and  the  ideas  that  grew  out  of  it  to  the  attention 
of  a  wide  public.  Expressions  of  sympathy  and 
approval  from  the  most  varied  quarters  sustained 
Mr.  Beers  in  the  determination  to  put  his  plans  for 
the  betterment  of  the  insane,  and  in  particular  for 
the  prevention  of  insanity,  into  practical  opera- 
tion. He  sought  and  received  the  co-operation  of 
leading  publicists,  and  the  National  Committee 
for  Mental  Hygiene  came  into  being. 

The  new  organization,  despite  its  distinguished 
personnel,  started  out  in  the  most  modest  way 
imaginable.  It  had  no  funds,  no  abiding  place,  no 
set  programme — only  enthusiasm  and  an  idea. 
But  in  due  course  a  philanthropic  gentleman,  who 
desires  for  the  present  to  be  nameless,  placed 
fifty  thousand  dollars  at  its  disposal,  enabling  it 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  97 

to  acquire  a  local  habitation  and  take  on  more 
aggressive  activities. 

With  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Salmon  as  director  of 
special  studies,  and  under  the  .secretaryship  of 
Mr.  Beers  himself,  active  work  is  now  in  progress 
at  the  New  York  headquarters  of  the  Committee. 

Thus  the  movement  which  had  its  inception  in 
the  mental  sufferings  of  a  patient  in  the  wards  of 
a  hospital  for  the  insane  has  been  fairly  launched 
on  a  nation-wide  campaign  that  promises  to  be  of 
the  utmost  benefit,  not  only  to  the  insane,  but  to 
our  race  as  a  whole ;  by  "  arousing  the  public  con- 
science "  in  regard  to  insane  dependents,  as  Pro- 
fessor James  put  it ;  by  enabling  many  a  wavering 
mind  to  "  find  itself,"  and  by  pointing  the  way  to 
higher  standards  of  mental  efficiency  for  all  of  us. 

The  Need  of  Better  Brains 

Dr.  Barker  names  as  first  among  the  objects  of 
the  organization,  "  the  protection  of  the  mental 
health  of  the  public  at  large." 

Probably  it  has  never  occurred  to  most  of  us 
that  our  mental  health  is  in  need  of  protection; 
but  that  is  largely  because  we  are  mostly  oblivi- 
ous to  a  matter  that  concerns  us  more  vitally  than 
any  other. 

If  we  gave  the  subject  attention,  a  good  many 
of  us  would  discover  that  some  rules  for  mental 
hygiene  might  not  be  amiss  for  us. 

How  many  of  us,  for  instance,  are  entitled  to 
feel  that  our  mental  efficiency  is  fully  at  par?  The 


98  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

generality  of  us,  if  quite  candid  with  ourselves, 
must  admit  that  our  memories  are  not  as  precise 
and  retentive  in  their  records  as  we  could  wish; 
that  our  capacity  for  concentration  leaves  a  good 
deal  to  be  desired ;  and  that  our  powers  of  will  are 
more  or  less  vacillating  and  on  the  whole  in- 
effective. 

A  good  many  of  us  have  habits  of  thought  that 
are  positively  slovenly. 

We  slur  over  what  we  read  in  such  fashion  that 
we  have  no  precise  and  really  usuable  knowledge 
of  it — overlooking  essential  names,  forgetting  im- 
portant dates,  remembering  the  facts  of  an  argu- 
ment only  vaguely  and  doubtfully. 

You  pore  over  your  morning  paper  at  the  break- 
fast table,  reading  of  a  war  in  the  near  East,  of  a 
scientific  discovery  in  Germany,  of  the  findings  of 
a  Congressional  investigation  committee,  and  the 
like.  You  are  interested  and  wish  to  remember 
what  you  read.  But  suppose  you  were  called  on 
at  the  dinner  table  to  give  a  clear  resume  of  the 
morning's  news,  noting  essentials  and  omitting 
the  non-essentials ;  stating  names  and  dates ;  giv- 
ing a  clear,  logical  consecutive  account  of  what  is 
important.  Could  you  perform  the  task  in  a  man- 
ner to  satisfy  yourself  or  your  hearers?  If  not, 
your  brain  is  not  the  well-trained,  dependable  ap- 
paratus of  mind  that  it  should  be. 

Apply  the  same  test  to  the  interesting  lecture 
you  heard  only  last  night,  or  to  the  book  you  read 
last  week,  and  you  get  the  same  result.  Of  all  that 
you  read  or  listened  to  with  so  much  interest,  only 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  99 

a  hazy  shadow  remains  as  a  part  of  your  mental 
equipment. 

Similarly  in  the  course  of  the  business  opera- 
tions, trifling  or  important,  that  enter  into  your 
work.  You  are  forever  suffering  from  tricks  of 
memory,  faulty  decisions  of  judgment,  vacilla- 
tions of  will,  and  false  inferences  from  perfectly 
clear  data. 

You  forget  to  mail  your  wife's  letter;  fail  to 
do  the  promised  errand;  overlook  an  appoint- 
ment ;  fritter  away  your  time  at  your  desk. 

Your  mind  becomes  vague  and  fatigued  after 
an  amount  of  work  that  should  have  served  merely 
as  a  stimulus.  You  allow  your  attention  to  be 
distracted  by  incidental  noises. 

You  are  worried  over  trifles,  bemoan  mistakes 
that  are  beyond  repair;  give  way  to  bursts  of 
temper  that  are  more  mind  racking  than  any 
amount  of  legitimate  work;  and  finally  end  the 
day  with  a  feeling  that  you  have  not  really  ac- 
complished half  that  you  set  out  to  do. 

All  of  which  shows  that  your  brain  is  not  the 
well-geared,  well-ordered,  trained  and  disciplined 
mechanism  that  it  might  be. 

And  this  is  so,  largely  because  it  has  never  oc- 
curred to  you  that  mental  efficiency  is  in  the  last 
analysis  the  foundation  of  all  efficiency;  that 
mental  hygiene  and  mind  training  are  vastly 
more  important  than  physical  hygiene  and  bodily 
training. 

More  than  likely  you  supplement  these  sins  of 
omission  with  habits  that  directly  tend  to  vitiate 


ioo  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

the  power  or  the  quality  of  your  mental  actions. 
You  smoke  far  more  than  is  good  for  your  mind 
and  body,  charging  your  system  with  the  nerve- 
poison  nicotine ;  or  you  steadily  impair  your  brain 
power  and  subject  yourself  to  the  danger  of  per- 
manent mental  deterioration  by  habitually  taking 
alcoholic  beverages. 

You  know,  probably,  that  tobacco  is  injurious 
to  you;  yet  you  cannot  forego  the  gratification  of 
your  senses  even  for  the  sake  of  attaining  clear- 
ness of  mind. 

You  have  probably  been  told  that  scientific  tests 
have  proved  that  alcohol,  even  in  small  quanti- 
ties,— a  bottle  of  beer,  a  glass  of  wine,  a  cocktail 
or  highball, — definitely  and  measurably  decreases 
the  amount  and  quality  of  mental  action.  Your 
observation  tells  you  that  a  drink  of  liquor  tends 
to  flush  your  face  and  momentarily  to  exhilarate 
your  mind.  You  might  correctly  infer  that  your 
brain  is  similarly  flushed  and  that  the  abnormal 
activity  excited  must  result  in  quick  reaction. 
Thousands  of  observations  prove  that  such  ex- 
citation, due  to  alcohol,  if  persistently  repeated, 
may  result  in  hardening  of  the  arteries,  with  the 
attending  liability  to  rupture  or  the  formation  of 
clots,  to  be  followed  by  the  degeneration  of  the 
brain  tissues. 

Yet  you  prefer  to  take  this  chance  rather  than 
deny  yourself  the  transient  and  illusory  sense  of 
well-being  that  a  drink  of  liquor  gives  you. 

If  you  chance  to  inherit  some  measure  of  neu- 
rotic taint  (and  few  families  are  totally  free 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  101 

from  it),  or  if  you  are  subjected  to  some  undue 
strain  from  business  worries  or  an  acute  illness, 
the  incipient  weakening  of  your  brain  tissues 
from  the  habitual  use  of  alcohol — even  in  small 
quantities — will  supply  precisely  the  conditions 
best  suited  to  put  you  in  danger  of  complete  men- 
tal breakdown. 

Such,  indeed,  is  the  history  of  at  least  one  in 
four  among  all  the  unfortunates  who  suffer 
mental  overthrow,  and  are  taken  to  hospitals  for 
the  insane.  But  even  short  of  this,  there  is  the 
persistent  lessening  of  your  mental  efficiency 
which  must  enter  largely  into  the  question  of  your 
success  or  failure  in  your  life  work. 

All  of  which  suggests  that  the  task  of  "  pro- 
tecting the  mental  health  of  the  public  at  large  " 
is  an  undertaking  that  need  not  languish  for  want 
of  objects  of  attention. 


From  Madhouse  to  Hospital 

Of  course  you  feel  very  confident  that  however 
much  your  brain  may  lack  of  full  efficiency  or 
action,  there  is  no  probability  that  it  could  alto- 
gether fail  you. 

You  may  be  right;  yet  it  is  worth  your  while 
to  recall  that  there  are  200,000  individuals  con- 
fined in  institutions  for  the  insane  in  the  United 
States  to-day,  who  a  few  years  ago,  felt  about 
themselves  precisely  as  you  feel  about  yourself 
now.  Certainly  50,000,  perhaps  75,000,  of  these 
unfortunates,  owe  their  mental  illness  wholly  or 


102  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

in  part  to  habits  of  alcoholic  indulgences  that  at 
one  time  were  doubtless  thought  by  them  to  be  as 
harmless  as  your  use  of  alcohol "  in  moderation  " 
seems  to  you  now. 

Causes  aside,  however,  the  ever  increasing  com- 
pany of  insane  dependents  may  well  excite 
solicitude,  and  questions  of  ameliorating  their 
conditions  have  strong  appeal. 

Even  if  no  question  of  humanitarianism  were 
involved,  the  taxpayer  cannot  overlook  the  fact 
that  the  monetary  cost  of  the  care  of  such  insane 
as  are  public  charges,  added  to  the  loss  through 
their  removal  from  the  ranks  of  productive  work- 
ers, has  been  computed  at  not  less  than 
$164,000,000  annually. 

The  needs  of  the  asylum  population  vary  with 
different  regions.  In  more  advanced  communi- 
ties what  perhaps  is  most  needed  is  the  enlighten- 
ment of  the  public  as  to  the  excellent  conditions 
that  prevail  in  the  institutions  for  the  insane.  As 
to  these,  there  has  been  a  great  change  for  the 
better  within  recent  decades.  Indeed,  throughout 
the  past  century  there  has  been  an  unceasing 
movement  in  the  right  direction.  Only  a  little 
over  a  century  has  elapsed  since  the  very  first  re- 
forms of  Benjamin  Kush  in  America,  of  Pinel  in 
France,  and  of  Tuke  in  England,  emancipated  the 
"  lunatic  "  from  chains  and  dungeons. 

The  present-day  "  hospital  for  the  insane  "  is 
an  utterly  metamorphosed  institution,  as  con- 
trasted with  the  "  lunatic  asylum  "  or  "  mad- 
house "  of  even  fifty  years  ago. 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  103 

The  visitor  to  the  modern  hospital  for  the  in- 
sane will  see  no  padded  cells,  no  patients  in 
manacles,  no  strait-jackets  even.  At  worst  there 
may  be  found  an  occasional  patient,  suffering 
from  an  extreme  form  of  maniacal  exaltation, 
whose  perverted  activities  are  restrained  by  the 
firm  but  kindly  hands  of  attendants,  or  who  is 
subjected  to  the  soothing  influence  of  a  prolonged 
bath. 

For  the  rest,  the  major  part  of  the  patients  will 
be  found  occupying  themselves  in  a  manner  not 
dissimilar  to  the  activities  of  normal  life. 

Some  are  at  work,  some  at  play;  others  are 
reading  or  conversing.  In  the  quieter  or  con- 
valescent wards,  the  general  aspect  of  things  will 
be  that  of  a  hotel  or  drawing-room  rather  than  of 
the  traditional  institution  for  the  insane.  And 
there  are  sure  to  be  many  patients  there  whose 
mental  infirmity  has  not  deprived  them  of  the 
ability  to  converse  on  a  wide  variety  of  topics 
with  entire  sanity,  with  full  intelligence,  and  even 
with  brilliancy.  For  the  mind  diseased  is  a  far 
more  subtle  mechanism  than  the  average  layman 
supposes,  and  its  derangements  are  not  always 
paraded  with  such  obviousness  that  the  casual 
inspector  may  observe  them. 

But  there  are  many  communities  in  the  United 
States  where  utterly  different  conditions  prevail. 
Only  a  few  years  ago  reformers  in  Maryland 
found  that  in  many  regions  the  insane,  in  charge 
of  local  commissioners,  were  secluded  in  cells,  and 
even  manacled,  quite  after  the  method  of  the 


104  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

traditional — and  actual — madhouse  of  medieval 
times. 

In  some  places  the  sexes  were  permitted  to  as- 
sociate indiscriminately,  and  the  birth  of  illegiti- 
mate children  with  a  double  heritage  of  mental 
weakness  was  not  unusual. 

But  the  reform  movement  progressed;  and  in 
due  course  the  sick  in  mind,  who  are  often  robust 
in  body,  were  liberated  from  the  local  madhouses, 
and  permitted  to  come  out  into  the  sunlight  and 
carry  on  healthful  activities.  Men  who  had  long 
been  shackled  are  now  at  work  in  the  fields.  They 
have  even  assisted  actively  in  the  building  of  in- 
stitutions in  which  such  of  them  as  are  incurable 
will  be  housed  and  cared  for  according  to  humane 
and  modern  methods. 

Dr.  Thomas  W.  Salmon,  director  of  special 
studies  of  the  National  Committee  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  asserts  that  there  are  no  fewer  than 
fourteen  States  in  which  care  of  the  insane  in 
county  almshouses  is  still  permitted. 

"  Whereas  the  care  of  the  insane  in  a  few  en- 
lightened States  is  a  matter  of  just  pride,"  he 
says,  "  there  is  not  a  single  condition  which  ex- 
isted in  the  early  period  of  neglect  and  abuse 
which  does  not  exist  to-day  in  some  American 
communities." 

I  would  suggest  that  each  reader  of  these  lines 
appoint  himself  a  committee  of  one  to  ascertain 
whether  the  community  in  which  he  lives  is  of  the 
eighteenth  century  or  of  the  twentieth  in  its  treat- 
ment of  the  insane. 


Is  Your  Brain  All.  Right?  105 

If  the  victims  of  mental  disease  in  your  com- 
munity still  go  uncared  for  in  jails  and  poorhouses 
you  can  do  no  more  humane  and  useful  work  than 
to  promulgate  a  reform  movement  along  the  lines 
of  those  that  have  been  carried  out  in  the  more 
civilized  communities  of  our  country. 

First  Aid  to  the  Mentally  Wavering 

But,  as  already  intimated,  the  problems  of 
mental  hygiene  are  only  secondarily  concerned 
with  the  insane. 

The  watchword  here  as  elsewhere  in  the  modern 
world  is  prevention. 

The  ideal  is,  not  merely  to  provide  proper  treat- 
ment for  the  individual  after  mental  breakdown, 
but  to  show  the  individual  how  to  obviate  break- 
down. The  world  is  full  of  persons  of  unstable 
mentality  who  would  gladly  consider  advice  as  to 
the  correction  of  their  abnormal  tendencies,  did 
they  but  know  where  to  seek  it. 

One  very  practical  way  of  getting  at  these  bor- 
derland cases  is  through  the  establishment  of 
psychiatric  clinics,  such  as  that  recently  opened  in 
Baltimore  in  connection  with  the  Johns  Hopkins 
Hospital.  This  clinic,  with  its  fine  building  just 
under  construction,  was  endowed  by  Mr.  Henry 
Phipps,  who  was  led  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
matter  through  the  suggestions  of  Dr.  William 
Welsh. 

The  idea  was  perhaps  gained  in  part  from  the 
principal  existing  European  clinics  of  like  aim, 


io6  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

which  had  their  original  inception  in  the  fertile 
mind  of  the  Swiss  alienist,  Dr.  Greisinger;  the 
best-known  existing  institution  being  that  in 
charge  of  Professor  Kraepelin  of  Munich.  But 
Professor  Welsh  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  Mr.  Phipps  was  to  some  extent  influenced 
by  reading  Mr.  Beers'  story  of  his  institution 
experiences. 

The  Henry  Phipps  Clinic  is  in  charge  of  Dr, 
Adolf  Meyer.  Its  good  work  is  already  under 
way,  and  its  foundation  may  well  be  regarded 
as  marking  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  treat- 
ment of  mental  disease — the  era  of  prevention. 

Other  new  institutions  having  the  same  aim  are 
the  Psychopathic  Hospital  at  Ann  Arbor,  allied 
with  the  State  University,  the  Boston  Psycho- 
pathic Hospital,  and  the  Psychiatric  Clinic  at 
Bellevue  Hospital  in  New  York. 

Persons  who  feel  that  their  mental  efficiency  is 
below  par  may  here  seek  expert  advice,  and  be 
put  on  the  track  of  mental  methods  that  make  for 
normality  and  tend  to  ward  off  mental  disease. 

It  is  believed  that  in  the  immediate  future 
psychiatric  clinics  on  the  lines  of  these  new  insti- 
tutions will  be  found  in  connection  with  every 
important  medical  school  and  hospital  and  dis- 
pensary throughout  the  country,  and  that  local 
societies,  co-operating  with  the  National  Com- 
mittee for  Mental  Hygiene,  will  be  established  in 
every  community. 

In  three  States,  Connecticut,  Illinois,  and  Mas- 
sachusetts, such  affiliating  societies  are  already  in 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  107 

operation,  and  in  New  York  the  same  work  is 
being  carried  on  by  the  Committee  on  Mental 
Hygiene  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association. 
These  societies  stand  ready  to  give  free  verbal  or 
written  advice  to  all  who  desire  information  re- 
garding the  principles  of  mental  hygiene,  and  the 
avoidable  causes  of  mental  disorder.  In  particu- 
lar they  extend  a  helping  hand  to  individuals  who 
fear  nervous  or  mental  collapse. 

They  do  not  usurp  the  functions  of  the  physi- 
cian, but  they  co-operate  with  him;  often  they 
induce  the  patient  to  seek  medical  advice  when 
he  would  not  otherwise  do  so. 

If  there  is  as  yet  neither  psychiatric  clinic  nor 
local  mental  hygiene  society  in  your  community, 
you  may  apply,  with  full  confidence,  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  National  Committee  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  50  Union  Square,  New  York,  for  advice 
along  the  lines  in  question,  or  for  helpful  litera- 
ture. 

Of  the  far-reaching  educational  influence  of 
these  movements  there  can  be  no  question.  In 
the  course  of  the  coming  decade  or  two  we  may 
hope  to  see  the  spread  of  popular  information 
regarding  mental  hygiene  duplicate  in  some 
measure  the  recent  progress  of  knowledge  of 
hygiene  of  the  body.  The  general  public  has  been 
given  a  clear  notion  regarding  the  proper  physical 
care  of  infants  and  children,  and  it  has  been  taught 
the  vital  need  of  physical  exercise  for  persons  of 
all  ages.  This  lesson  learned,  it  is  time  to  turn 
attention  to  the  brain. 


io8  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Mental  Hygiene 

It  is  desirable  to  keep  your  muscular  system  in 
good  order — strong  and  resilient.  But  this  is 
not  absolutely  essential,  except  for  the  profes- 
sional athlete. 

Your  muscles  may  be  too  weak  to  lift  a  trunk, 
but  you  can  hire  a  porter  to  lift  it. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  suppose  your  brain  is 
not  so  developed  as  to  work  with  maximum  ef- 
ficiency. What  then?  Your  mind  is  below  par 
in  some  or  in  all  of  its  operations. 

And  now  it  is  no  longer  a  question  of  hiring 
someone  to  do  the  work  that  you  cannot  do.  Weak 
brains  do  not  hire  assistance;  they  put  their 
possessor  in  the  class  of  the  hired — and  the  wage 
is  small. 

The  essential  difference  between  the  bank  presi- 
dent and  the  man  that  tends  his  furnace  is  a  dif- 
ference of  only  a  few  ounces  of  brain  substance. 
But  these  few  ounces  are  of  inestimable  value. 

Good  brain  substance  is  about  the  only  thing  in 
the  world  that  is  never  a  drug  on  the  market. 

When  we  think  of  the  matter  in  this  light,  it 
seems  rather  strange,  does  it  not,  that  there  are 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  giving  heed  to 
keeping  their  muscles  developed — taking  home 
exercise,  going  to  gymnasiums,  playing  golf  and 
tennis — where  one  individual  gives  definite 
thought  to  the  specific  development  of  brain 
power? 

In  so  saying,  I  would  not  ignore  the  fact  that 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  109 

health  of  muscle  is  helpful  to  the  brain.  But. 
physical  health  can  do  no  more  than  prepare  the 
soil,  so  to  speak,  for  mental  action.  The  free 
circulation  of  healthy  blood  gives  the  brain 
physical  materials  for  action;  but  a  man  might  be 
a  champion  athlete  and  yet  be  a  child  in  knowl- 
edge. Mental  hygiene  includes  physical  training, 
but  it  goes  beyond.  After  the  brain  is  made 
physically  healthy,  it  must  be  trained  as  the  organ 
of  observation,  thinking,  and  acting. 

As  you  test  your  muscles  from  time  to  time, 
you  might  well  also  apply  some  definite  tests  as 
to  your  memory,  your  capacity  for  concentrated 
thought,  and  your  will  power. 

When  men  are  sought  to  fill  high  positions,  the 
questions  asked  do  not  concern  the  golf  score  or 
the  size  of  biceps.  They  concern  the  capacities 
of  brain  and  of  mind.  Darwin  and  Spencer  were 
frail,  sickly  men.  The  work  of  their  bodies  would 
have  gained  them  scant  livelihood.  Their  brains 
transformed  the  entire  intellectual  viewpoint  of 
Christendom. 

Brain  and  Mind 

Of  course  everyone  vaguely  knows  that  all  men- 
tality depends  upon  the  action  of  the  brain.  Yet 
the  fact  is  often  slurred  over  or  ignored.  So  it 
cannot  be  amiss  to  emphasize  the  relation  in 
specific  terms. 

"  Mind  "  and  "  brain  "  are  not  synonyms  of 
course ;  but  one  depends  absolutely  upon  the  other. 

No  one  competent  to  judge  doubts  that  every 


no  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

mental  action  has  a  physical  substratum  in  the 
brain;  and  that  every  perverted  mental  action  is 
evidence  of  a  perversion,  however  intangible,  of 
the  brain  substance.  So  the  physical  welfare  of 
the  brain  is  directly  concerned  in  all  questions  of 
mental  hygiene. 

Moreover — and  this  is  the  most  important  fact 
of  the  entire  subject — abnormalities  of  the  brain, 
when  fully  developed,  may  be  quite  beyond  re- 
pair although  it  might  have  been  perfectly  feasible 
to  prevent  their  development.  The  essential 
structures  of  the  organ  of  thought  include 
myriads  of  specialized  cells  of  exquisite  delicacy. 
Under  the  microscope  they  appear  like  tiny  arrow- 
heads, sharply  outlined,  with  infinitesimal  fibrillar 
appendages  that  convey  messages  from  one  cell  to 
another. 

Each  cell  might  be  likened  to  a  storage  battery, 
and  the  connecting  fibrils  to  the  wires  of  an  elec- 
tric system. 

The  brain  operates  effectively  only  while  both 
cells  and  connecting  wires  are  in  good  order. 

Eamifying  everywhere  among  the  cells  are  the 
all-essential  blood  vessels.  In  order  that  the 
brain  cells  should  functionate  at  all,  they  must 
be  supplied  with  oxygen-carrying  blood.  Any 
alteration  in  the  blood  supply  makes  a  vital  attack 
upon  the  brain.  You  may  produce  unconscious- 
ness almost  instantly  by  pressing  on  the  arteries 
in  the  neck.  Any  vitiation  of  the  blood-stream  is 
felt  by  the  sensitive  cerebral  tissues  more  quickly 
and  more  vitally  than  by  any  other  tissues, 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  in 

Hence  it  is  that  a  drug  like  alcohol,  which  may 
disturb  the  normal  condition  of  the  circulation, 
makes  its  influence  felt  immediately,  and  persist- 
ently on  the  brain. 

Not  only  does  alcohol  change  the  quantity  of 
blood  that  circulates  among  the  thought-produc- 
ing cells,  but  it  vitiates  the  quality  of  the  blood 
and  reduces  the  capacity  of  the  brain  cells  to  take 
up  oxygen,  upon  the  presence  of  which  their  power 
absolutely  depends. 

Stated  otherwise,  alcohol  is  a  protoplasmic 
poison.  Even  in  very  small  quantities  it  produces 
a  measurable  effect  upon  the  activities  of  the 
sensitive  brain  tissues;  an  effect  that  may  be 
tested  in  the  laboratory  and  that  has  been  demon- 
strated to  continue  for  a  term  of  hours  even  when 
a  very  small  quantity  of  alcohol  was  taken,  and 
for  several  days  when  a  larger  quantity  is  in- 
volved. 

How  Alcohol  Mars  the  Brain 

Not  only  so  but  the  devitalizing  effect  produces 
changes  in  the  protoplasm  that  are  cumulative. 

The  brain  cells  subject  to  this  abnormal  strain 
gradually  alter  in  their  essential  constituents  and 
if  the  strain  is  long  continued  may  become  per- 
manently damaged.  If  tangible  demonstration  of 
this  were  sought,  it  is  furnished  beyond  all  equivo- 
cation by  the  fact  that  alcohol  is  a  recognized 
potent  contributing  factor  in  the  causation  of  from 
one-fourth  to  one-third  of  all  cases  of  insanity, 
the  world  over. 


ii2  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

If  this  unequivocal  fact  could  be  made  known 
to  every  young  man  who  is  gradually  acquiring  a 
taste  for  the  regular  use  of  alcoholic  beverages, 
the  effect  on  the  mental  efficiency  of  our  race 
would  be  enormous.  Dr.  G.  Sims  Woodhead,  of 
Cambridge  University,  England,  describes  the 
changes  that  accompany  acute  alcoholism,  which 
include  "  marked  degenerative  changes  in  the 
inner  lining  of  the  small  vessels  of  the  brain,  and 
an  exaggerated  condition  of  waste — a  '  clogging  ' 
due  to  the  accumulation  of  rapidly  produced  waste 
products  in  the  lymph  spaces  in  the  outer  walls 
of  the  vessels. 

"  It  has  been  noted  also,"  says  Dr.  Woodhead, 
"  that  in  some  cases  small  clots  are  found  in  the 
vessels — clots  which  interfere  with  the  transmis- 
sion of  the  blood  along  the  normal  channels.  This 
clogging  of  the  vessels  and  the  spaces  around 
them  affords  evidence  that  the  tissues  are  break- 
ing down  very  rapidly,  but  its  chief  importance 
appears  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  it  leads  to  continued 
interference  with  the  nutrition  of  the  surrounding 
tissues,  thus  playing  a  part  in  the  determination 
of  further  degenerative  changes." 

These  changes  are  of  an  alarming  character. 
They  include  degeneration  not  only  of  the  nerve 
cells  themselves,  which  may  become  atrophied  and 
fatty,  but  also  in  the  fibrils  that  run  out  from 
the  cells. 

Even  where  the  body  of  the  cell  remains  intact, 
the  fibrillar  twigs  may  undergo  remarkable 
changes. 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  113 

"  Little  swellings  make  their  appearance  at 
regular  intervals,  first  near  the  tip  of  a  process, 
and  gradually  work  their  way  back  toward  the 
body  of  the  cell,  so  that  after  a  time  the  process 
looks  almost  like  a  string  of  beads.  Alongside 
these  changes,  some  of  the  lateral  twigs  have  be- 
come swollen  and  shortened,  whilst  others  disap- 
pear; in  advanced  stages  the  bulk  of  them  so 
disappearing." 

This  stunting  and  disappearance  of  the  lateral 
twigs  of  the  nerve  fibrils,  Dr.  Woodhead  tells  us, 
is  equivalent  to  severing  the  connecting  wires  of 
an  electric  system,  and  the  communications  be- 
tween cell  and  cell  are  done  away  with. 

Ultimately  it  may  come  to  pass  that  "  so  many 
of  the  connecting  wires  are  cut  out,  as  it  were,  and 
the  interference  with  the  passage  of  nerve  im- 
pulses along  the  nerves  is  so  marked,  that  com- 
mencing with  the  more  delicate  processes  of 
thought  and  going  on  to  the  machinery  by  which 
'  we  live  and  have  our  being,'  the  nervous  mechan- 
ism is  gradually  thrown  out  of  gear." 

These  changes  have  been  most  fully  studied  in 
the  brains  of  animals  poisoned  with  alcohol,  but 
Dr.  Berkeley  at  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  has 
shown  that  they  may  also  be  demonstrated  in  the 
brain  of  a  human  being  who  has  been  an  habitual 
drinker. 

Such  a  draught  on  the  brain  structure,  with  the 
inevitable  attendant  loss  of  mental  power,  is  a 
high  price  to  pay  for  the  transient  pleasures  of 
alcoholic  indulgence. 


H4  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Syphilis  and  Brain  Decay 

There  are  various  toxins  of  bacterial  origin  that 
have  an  effect  on  the  brain  that  is  closely  similar 
to  the  effect  of  alcohol.  Of  these  by  far  the  most 
important  from  the  present  standpoint  is  the 
poison  generated  by  the  spirochete  of  syphilis. 
This  is,  indeed,  the  most  important  direct  agency 
in  the  causation  of  brain  maladies,  next  to  al- 
cohol. 

Not  only  may  syphilis  cause  degeneration  of 
the  arteries  of  the  brain  and  destructive  tumors 
(called  gummata)  in  that  organ;  but  it  also  threat- 
ens its  victim  with  the  most  pitiful  and  hopeless 
of  all  forms  of  insanity,  general  paralysis,  or 
paresis,  colloquially  known  as  softening  of  the 
brain. 

This  terrifying  disease,  which  hurries  tlie  pa- 
tient to  complete  dementia  and  an  early  death, 
never  comes  to  anyone  who  has  not  had  syphilis ; 
hence  it  may  properly  be  spoken  of  as  a  terminal 
form  of  that  malady. 

General  paralysis  is  a  very  common  form  of 
insanity.  The  paretics  that  come  to  the  New  York 
Hospitals  for  the  Insane  each  year  amount  to  17 
per  cent  of  all  men  and  8  per  cent  of  all  women 
admitted.  The  pitiful  and  hopeless  decay  of 
mentality  that  these  patients  exhibit  is  matched 
by  the  destructive  lesions  of  their  brains,  as  may 
readily  be  demonstrated  post  mortem,  both  by 
macroscopic  inspection  and  by  study  of  the  brain 
tissues  under  the  microscope. 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  115 

The  brain  will  be  seen  to  be  actually  shrunken 
in  size,  a  layer  of  watery  fluid  taking  the  place 
of  the  withered  brain  tissues.  The  arteries  are 
thickened  and  their  walls  altered  in  texture.  The 
cells  of  the  cortex — the  all-essential  gray  matter 
— have  undergone  degenerative  changes ;  many  of 
them  are  altogether  obliterated,  and  their  place 
taken  by  tissues  that  are  as  useless  for  purposes 
of  mental  activity  as  so  much  putty. 

The  proportion  of  cases  in  which  syphilis  ulti- 
mately leads  to  this  result  is  appallingly  large. 

A  very  careful  analysis  has  recently  been  made 
of  the  cases  of  syphilis  among  officers  of  the  Aus- 
trian army  during  a  long  term  of  years,  the  aggre- 
gate number  being  41,000.  Most  of  these  cases 
were  doubtless  given  the  very  best  medical  treat- 
ment, yet  nevertheless  4.6  per  cent  of  all  syphi- 
litics,  or  almost  one  in  twenty,  were  finally  strick- 
en with  paresis. 

The  proportion  would  probably  be  much  larger 
could  full  statistics  be  gathered  of  persons  in 
civic  life,  who  on  the  average  would  be  less  ef- 
fectively treated  in  the  early  stages  of  the  dis- 
ease than  were  the  Austrian  officers. 

Syphilis  itself  is  a  disease  of  many  painful 
manifestations  in  its  earlier  stages ;  the  likelihood 
that  it  may  lead  to  this  termination  in  the  most 
fatal  and  deplorable  of  mental  maladies,  should 
be  an  additional  warning  against  the  well-known 
lapses  of  moral  conduct  through  which  the  disease 
is  acquired. 

"  Over  the  door  of  every  immoral  resort,"  says 


u6  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

a  leaflet  recently  issued  with  the  authority  of  lead- 
ing alienists,  *  *  might  truthfully  be  written :  '  In- 
curable insanity  may  be  contracted  here.'  If 
self-respect,  the  desire  for  the  good  opinion  of 
others,  the  influence  of  religious  training,  and  the 
attractions  of  home  life  are  not  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent this  kind  of  wrong  doing;  the  danger  of 
contracting  a  disease  which  may  result  in  incur- 
able insanity  should  be  sufficient." 

I  wish  I  could  bring  that  thought-provocative 
paragraph  to  the  attention  of  every  boy  and 
young  man,  of  every  father  of  sons,  and  of  every 
educator  of  youth  in  America.  No  comment  could 
add  to  it.  No  amount  of  sermonizing  could  ap- 
proach it  in  forceful  suggestiveness. 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune? 

you  ever  suffer  from  "  nerves  "  f  Are 
you  at  times  cross,  fidgety,  unstrung,  irrita- 
able,  apprehensive,  despondent?  Do  you  ever  get 
in  such  a  state  that  your  friends  say  your  nerves 
are  on  the  outside?  Then  read  this  chapter 
and  find  out  what  to  do  about  it. 

You  know  that  you  have  a  nervous  system ;  but 
did  you  know  that  you  have  two  of  them ;  and  that 
one  sometimes  treats  the  other  badly?  Did  you 
know  that  your  secondary  nervous  system  per- 
forms miracles  every  hour  that  no  scientist  could 
duplicate  in  his  laboratory?  There  are  more  cells 
in  your  body  than  there  are  people  in  all  the 
world,  and  every  cell  is  an  individual  organism 
that  must  be  fed  and  exercised  and  renovated  by 
the  removal  of  its  waste  products. 

The  secondary  nervous  system,  of  which  you 
perhaps  never  heard,  performs  this  work, — a  far 
more  wonderful  task  than  anything  you  ever  do 
consciously. 

The  wisest  physician  in  the  world  could  not 
care  for  one  of  these  cells  a  single  hour  as  your 
sympathetic  nerve-ganglia  care  for  the  billions; 
the  most  skilful  surgeon  could  not  repair  a  pin- 
scratch  without  the  aid  of  these  nerves. 

117 


n8  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Yet  this  wonderful  apparatus  needs  your  assist- 
ance. How  do  you  aid  in  the  work  it  carries  on 
in  your  behalf?  It  is  more  than  likely  that  you 
do  not  do  your  part  very  well.  Yet  if  you  treat 
this  other  self  of  yours  badly,  you  must  pay  the 
penalty — and  the  penalty  is  "  nerves  "  of  the 
kind  you  do  not  relish.  These  pages  will  show  you 
your  duty  to  yourself,  and  attempt  to  point  the 
way  to  a  healthier  and  happier  way  of  living. 

Like  a  Telephone  System 

There  has  recently  been  founded  in  New  York 
City  a  new  kind  of  clinic  called  the  Neurological 
Institute.  Several  of  the  most  prominent  nerve 
specialists  have  combined  forces  to  start  this  in- 
stitution, which,  as  its  name  implies,  will  be  de- 
voted to  the  treatment  of  the  various  nervous 
diseases. 

The  establishment  of  such  an  institution  is 
symbolic  of  the  times.  We  are  all  familiar  with 
the  assertion  that  this  is  a  nervous  age,  and  a  good 
many  evidences  are  at  hand  that  tend  to  prove 
the  assertion.  In  the  cities  in  particular,  under 
the  conditions  of  hurry  and  stress  that  there  ob- 
tain, neurasthenia  or  nervous  prostration  has 
become  more  and  more  popular.  But  similar  con- 
ditions are  becoming  increasingly  familiar  among 
the  patients  of  the  country  doctor  as  well.  And 
indeed  this  is  inevitable,  for  nervous  breakdown 
follows  under  strain  almost  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  everyone  knows  that  the  conditions  of  the 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  ng 

past  few  years  have  added  to  the  average  stress 
of  living. 

But  just  what  do  we  mean  when  we  speak  of 
"  nervous  breakdown "  ?  The  words  are  on 
everyone's  lips,  but  like  a  good  many  other  fa- 
miliar phrases  this  one  is  not  always  clearly  un- 
derstood by  those  who  use  it.  To  gain  an  inkling 
of  what  the  words  really  imply  we  must  briefly 
consider  the  normal  functions  of  the  nerves. 

These  functions,  it  appears,  are  exceedingly 
simple,  notwithstanding  the  complex  conditions 
that  result  from  their  derangement.  It  is  scarcely 
an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  sole  function  of 
the  nerves  is  to  convey  impulses. 

They  are  in  effect  telephone  wires  carrying 
messages  from  one  part  of  the  organism  to  an- 
other, and  from  the  outside  world  to  the  central 
nervous  mechanisms. 

The  resemblance  between  the  nervous  system 
and  a  telephone  system  is  really  striking ;  but  the 
analogy  is  complete  only  when  we  consider  the 
telephone  services  of  those  cities — London  and 
Los  Angeles,  for  instance — that  have  two  rival 
telephone  companies  in  the  same  territory.  For 
the  human  body  has  its  two  sets  of  nerves  per- 
meating to  every  nook  and  cranny  of  the  organism, 
each  set  largely  independent  of  the  other,  and 
each  sending  its  fibres  (conducting  wires)  to  an 
independent  receiving  station  or  central  office. 

One  series  of  receiving  stations  consists  of  a 
chain  of  small  ganglia,  or  networks  of  nerve  cen- 
tres, extending  along  the  spinal  column,  within 


120  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

the  body  cavity,  supplemented  by  similar  gan- 
glionic  stations,  all  relatively  small  and  inconspic- 
uous, in  various  other  cavities  of  the  body.  This 
meshwork  of  ganglia,  together  with  the  nerve 
cords  that  connect  with  it  and  run  in  all  directions 
to  find  their  chief  termini  in  the  organs  of  the 
body  and  in  the  blood  vessels  and  lymphatics,  is 
called  the  sympathetic  system. 

In  vast  numbers  of  lower  organisms,  including 
all  creatures  below  the  vertebrates,  this  is  the 
only  nervous  mechanism. 

But  in  man  and  his  allies  of  the  great  tribe  of 
vertebrates,  a  second  system  of  nerve  centres  has 
been  evolved — a  rival  or  supplementary  telephone 
system — which  is  far  more  complex,  and  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  intellectual  life  vastly  more  im- 
portant than  the  original  one.  The  central  sta- 
tions of  this  system  are  known  as  the  brain  and 
spinal  cord.  To  protect  these  masses  of  nerve 
cells,  the  skull  and  spinal  column  were  evolved, 
and  the  entire  structure  of  all  higher  animals  was 
modified  accordingly. 

The  nerves  that  go  out  from  the  brain  and 
spinal  cord  connect  at  their  free  ends  with  muscle 
fibres,  or  they  are  spread  out  to  form  a  meshwork 
in  the  skin,  or  they  are  modified  to  serve  the  pur- 
poses of  the  organs  of  special  sense. 

It  is  these  nerves,  conveying  their  message  to 
the  spinal  cord  and  brain,  that  are  involved 
wherever  we  are  conscious  of  any  contact  with 
the  other  world,  either  through  the  tactile  sense, 
or  through  the  sense  of  taste,  smell,  -icr.ring,  or 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  121 

sight.  The  impressions  from  the  world  as  gained 
by  the  skin,  or  tongue,  or  eye,  or  ear,  set  up 
"  nervous  impulses  "  that  are  transmitted  to  the 
appropriate  centres  in  the  brain,  and  these  cen- 
tres interpret  the  impressions  as  states  of  con- 
sciousness which  we  speak  of  as  sensations. 

The  Brain  Mechanism 

If  you  could  look  back  into  this  great  receiving 
station  in  your  head  with  the  eyes  of  the  micro- 
scope, you  would  find  that  each  nerve  fibril  that 
comes  to  it  from  the  outlying  regions  of  your 
body  terminates  finally  in  a  minute  ganglion  cell. 
There  are  millions  of  these  cells,  arranged  in 
rather  definite  layers  scattered  everywhere 
through  the  gray  matter  or  cortex  of  the  brain. 
Certain  localized  groups  are  given  over  to  the  re- 
ception of  each  kind  of  impression,  and  the  nerve 
cells  that  control  definite  functions  are  similarly 
localized.  But  they  are  intermeshed  and  linked  by 
connecting  fibrils. 

There  are,  for  example,  a  few  convolutions  near 
the  centre  of  the  brain  where  the  cells  are  located 
that  directly  control  the  activities  of  the  voluntary 
muscles.  Injury  to  this  small  area  would  cause 
paralysis  of  the  groups  of  muscles  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  body, — for  a  large  number  of  nerve 
tracts  cross  over  from  the  right  side  of  the  body 
to  the  left  side  of  the  brain  and  vice  versa. 

Again,  there  is  a  small  area  in  the  left  frontal 
region,  the  brain  cells  of  which  control  the  memory 


122  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

of  words  as  used  in  ordinary  speech.  Injury  to 
this  region  may  cause  so-called  aphasia,  with  its 
characteristic  symptom  of  incapacity  to  talk  be- 
cause the  names  of  things  cannot  be  recalled,  even 
though  the  individual  is  perfectly  conscious  and 
retains  all  other  evidences  of  intelligence. 

As  to  the  more  abstract  processes  of  mind,  the 
localization  of  cells  is  less  specifically  known.  In 
point  of  fact  it  seems  probable  that  for  the  proc- 
esses of  intellection  large  numbers  of  the  cells 
are  involved,  and  that  these  cells  are  scattered  in 
widely  different  regions  of  the  brain,  being  linked 
with  connecting  nerve  fibrils  which  run  every- 
where through  the  central  substance  of  the  brain, 
like  telephone  wires  connecting  the  numberless 
telephones  of  a  system. 

The  processes  of  memory,  we  may  suppose,  are 
associated  with  the  reproduction  of  cellular  activi- 
ties of  the  brain  which  duplicate  vibrations  that 
came  to  them  at  an  earlier  period. 

As  for  the  messages  that  go  out  from  the  brain, 
along  the  nerves  of  the  sensory-motor  system,  it 
is  rather  startling  to  discover  that  these  consist 
solely  of  orders  transmitted  along  the  motor 
nerves  to  the  fibres  of  muscles,  directing  these 
fibres  to  contract.  Intricate  and  elaborate  as  are 
the  brain  processes,  with  their  conscious  equiva- 
lents, the  sole  method  by  which  the  brain  is  able 
to  control  the  body  it  dominates  is  by  thus  direct- 
ing the  activities  of  the  muscles. 

It  is  necessary  to  have  an  exceedingly  intricate 
system  of  nerves  devoted  to  this  purpose  because 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  123 

it  is  absolutely  essential  that  the  several  hundred 
mucles  of  the  body  should  operate  in  harmony. 

What  results  when  there  is  any  disarrangement 
of  this  harmonizing  central  mechanism  is  well  il- 
lustrated in  the  convulsive  seizures  of  a  victim 
of  the  familiar  disease  called  epilepsy.  In  the 
epileptic  seizure  each  muscle  of  the  individual  is 
acting  normally,  but  through  lack  of  cerebral  con- 
trol the  muscles  are  all  put  into  action  simulta- 
neously, one  set  opposing  another  in  a  hopelessly 
inco-ordinate  struggle  that  amounts  to  a  civil  war 
among  the  members  of  the  bodily  organism. 

Under  normal  conditions,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  messages  sent  out  from  the  central  mechanism 
are  so  skilfully  regulated  that  harmonious  groups 
of  muscles  are  put  into  action  together  and  oppos- 
ing muscles  rendered  quiescent. 

You  could  never  so  much  as  bend  your  elbow 
if  the  triceps  muscles  at  the  back  of  your  arm 
did  not  relax  while  the  biceps  muscles  are  con- 
tracting. 

In  producing  this  harmonious  action  of  the 
muscles,  the  function  of  the  nerves  proper,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  merely  to  transmit  impulses  from 
the  central  generating  station.  Yet  the  absolute 
importance  of  the  transmitting  nerves  is  easily 
demonstrated ;  for  if  one  of  these  nerve  tracts  is 
severed — say,  by  a  knife  wound — the  muscles 
supplied  by  that  nerve  becoming  instantly 
'  *  paralyzed  ' ' ;  they  remain  totally  quiescent  not- 
withstanding any  commands  that  the  brain  cells 
may  attempt  to  give  them. 


124  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Here  again  the  likeness  to  the  telephone  system 
is  obvious:  the  wires  must  be  intact  or  no  mes- 
sages can  be  transmitted. 

The  Action  of  the  Sympathetic  System 

,  The  activities  of  the  brain  are  primarily  asso- 
ciated with  the  familiar  phenomena  of  conscious- 
ness. 

Under  normal  conditions,  we  can  consciously 
control  the  messages  that  result  in  action  of  the 
bodily  muscles.  We  can  move  our  arms  or  feet 
or  actuate  the  muscles  of  the  vocal  apparatus  at 
will.  It  is  true  that  many  movements  that  are 
habitually  repeated  come  to  take  place,  as  it  were, 
automatically  and  without  conscious  direction. 
The  movements  involved  in  walking  furnish  a 
familiar  illustration.  The  action  of  the  chest  in 
breathing  is  an  even  more  striking  instance.  But 
it  is  possible  to  bring  these  movements  within  the 
scope  of  consciousness,  and  to  direct  them  at  will 
by  fixing  attention  upon  them. 

There  are  other  sets  of  bodily  activities,  how- 
ever, that  are  not  subject  to  such  voluntary  con- 
trol. 

Such,  for  example,  are  the  activities  of  the 
entire  apparatus  of  digestion  and  assimilation, 
the  all-important  and  unceasing  action  of  the 
heart,  and  the  contraction  and  relaxation  of  the 
muscular  coats  of  the  arteries  and  arterioles  by 
which  the  distribution  of  the  blood  in  the  body  is 
largely  controlled. 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  125 

The  function  of  breathing  also  falls,  in  the  last 
analysis,  among  those  essential  life  processes  that 
are  not  dominated  by  the  conscious  mind ;  whereas 
we  can  regulate  the  breathing  muscles  within  cer- 
tain bounds,  we  cannot  prevent  their  operation 
altogether.  However  hard  you  try  to  hold  your 
breath,  the  "  automatic  "  control  of  the  breath- 
ing apparatus  will  presently  overmaster  the  con- 
scious effort  at  retardation. 

In  a  word,  then,  it  is  obvious  that  the  so-called 
"  vital  "  functions,  those  that  must  be  perpet- 
uated in  operation  in  order  to  maintain  life,  are 
placed  beyond  control  of  the  conscious  mind. 
They  are,  in  point  of  fact,  controlled  by  the  sym- 
pathetic system  of  ganglia  scattered  throughout 
the  body  cavities.  The  relatively  inconspicuous 
ganglia  that  control  this  system  have  the  needs  of 
the  organism  constantly  under  surveillance. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  two  telephone  sys- 
tems of  the  body  are  not  rival  systems;  they  are 
complementary. 

If  the  bodily  mechanism  tends  to  run  short  of 
fuel,  the  sympathetic  ganglia  telegraph  a  message 
to  the  conscious  brain  centres  which  is  interpreted 
as  a  sensation  of  hunger.  The  muscles  under 
conscious  control  then  secure  food  and  convey  it 
to  the  stomach. 

But  here  the  sympathetic  ganglia  resume  con- 
trol. They  send  messages  which  cause  relaxation 
of  the  walls  of  the  blood  vessels  supplying  the 
stomach  and  other  digestive  organs,  so  that  an 
increased  flow  of  blood  to  these  parts  takes  place. 


126  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Thus  stimulated  the  various  glands  of  the  stom- 
ach and  intestines  and  liver  and  pancreas  secrete 
the  digestive  fluids  that  transform  the  food  into 
absorbable  compounds.  If  meat  has  been  eaten 
largely,  the  supply  of  gastric  juice  must  be  plen- 
tiful; for  fatty  and  starchy  foods,  pancreatic  and 
hepatic  juices  must  be  supplied  in  just  the  right 
quantity. 

All  this  is  controlled  by  the  sympathetic  ganglia. 
So  are  the  further  steps  through  which  this  as- 
similable material  is  taken  up  by  the  lacteals  and 
ultimately  distributed  to  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  body,  there  to  be  used  in  rebuilding  broken 
down  tissues  or  as  fuel  for  the  bodily  machine  in 
general. 

And  under  normal  conditions,  these  varied  ac- 
tivities are  performed  so  independently  of  the 
brain  centres  as  to  leave  no  record  in  conscious- 
ness. 

These  miraculous  transformations  are  going  on 
in  your  body, — such  transformations  as  no  chem- 
ist could  duplicate,  in  the  laboratory, — and  you 
are  utterly  unconscious  of  the  entire  procedure. 
Your  brain  is  busy  with  other  duties,  or  is  sleep- 
ing— it  matters  not:  the  perpetual  vigilance  of 
the  sympathetic  system  keeps  the  commonwealth 
of  cells  and  tissues  of  many  types  in  healthful 
activity. 

There  is,  nevertheless,  the  closest  harmony  of 
action  between  the  two  nerve  systems,  notwith- 
standing the  different  systems  of  organs  which 
they  control. 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  127 

Take  a  simple  illustration.  Your  brain  mechan- 
ism, under  certain  stimuli,  determines  that  your 
body  shall  enter  into  vigorous  action.  You  de- 
cide, let  us  say,  to  participate  in  a  running  match. 
Your  muscles,  as  directed  by  your  brain  through 
impulses  sent  along  motor  nerves,  are  caused  to 
contract  with  great  vigor,  and  as  such  contraction 
is  associated  with  a  large  consumption  of  fuel  and 
the  liberation  into  your  veins  of  excessive  quanti- 
ties of  waste  products,  it  becomes  instantly  neces- 
sary to  safeguard  the  bodily  mechanism  as  a 
whole.  There  must  be  an  accelerated  flow  of 
blood,  the  lungs  must  functionate  more  quickly  to 
supply  oxygen  and  remove  carbonic  acid  gas ;  and 
the  blood  vessels  at  the  surface  must  be  opened 
to  full  capacity,  and  the  perspiratory  glands  put 
into  full  action  to  facilitate  the  elimination  of 
heat  lest  the  bodily  temperature  be  raised  to  a 
dangerous  level. 

And  the  unconsciously  operated  sympathetic 
mechanism  proves  equal  to  these  needs.  Your 
heart  beats  with  redoubled  speed  and  force.  Your 
breathing  becomes  rapid  and  deep,  your  skin  is 
flushed,  and  perspiration  breaks  out  all  over  your 
body. 

You  have  had  no  conscious  thought  of  anything 
beyond  the  muscular  exertion  involved  in  run- 
ning; but  the  sympathetic  mechanism  has  op- 
erated in  harmonious  coalition  with  the  spinal 
cord  and  brain,  with  the  result  that  a  whole  coterie 
of  essential  functions  lying  beyond  the  control  of 
the  conscious  mind,  many  of  them  utterly  beyond 


128  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

the    pale    of    consciousness    itself,    has    become 
operative. 

It  is  a  marvelous  coalition,  this  federation  of 
the  two  great  seemingly  independent  nervous 
systems.  Neither  system  could  do  the  work  of 
the  other;  each  must  find  support  in  the  other; 
working  together  they  control  the  most  wonder- 
ful of  all  mechanisms,  the  bodily  machine;  work- 
ing in  harmony  they  ensure  that  mechanism  life 
and  health  and  strength  within  its  hereditary 
limitations;  but  if  either  fails  or  if  either  shirks 
its  share  of  duties,  disaster  results  and  the  organ- 
ism falls  prey  to  disease. 

Imposing  on  Your  Other  Self 

To  get  a  clear  idea  of  the  situation,  we  must 
recall  that  there  are  in  your  body  more  cells  than 
there  are  people  in  all  the  world,  and  that  every 
cell  is  an  individual  organism  that  must  be  fed 
and  exercised,  and  renovated  by  removal  of  its 
waste  products. 

The  sympathetic  nervous  system  controls  this 
vast  population,  and  attends  to  its  needs.  Every 
individual  cell,  located  in  any  out  of  the  way  part 
of  your  body  must  have  its  appropriate  modicum 
of  food  brought  to  it  through  blood  vessels  and 
lacteals,  and  the  waste  products  of  its  activity 
must  be  promptly  removed;  otherwise  your  or- 
ganism would  very  soon  suffer  complete  demora- 
lization and  all  activity  would  be  at  an  end, — that 
is  to  say,  you  would  die. 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  129 

The  function  of  the  sympathetic  nervous  sys- 
tem might  then  be  likened  to  that  of  the  commis- 
sary department  of  an  army. 

The  supplying  of  food,  and  the  general  routine 
of  hygiene,  as  applied  to  the  army,  is  a  service  that 
gives  little  glory  in  comparison  with  the  mar- 
shaling of  the  troops  in  battle  array,  and  the 
strategy  that  makes  for  the  winning  of  battles ;  but 
it  is  an  absolutely  essential  service  none  the  less. 

And  so  the  unconsciously  operated  activities  of 
the  sympathetic  nervous  system,  which  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  bodily  functions,  are  absolutely 
essential  to  your  well-being,  however  your  con- 
scious mind  may  be  disposed  to  regard  these  mere 
"  animal  "  activities. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  manner  in  which 
you,  as  a  conscious  personality,  carry  on  your 
part  of  the  work  necessary  to  the  harmonious 
operation  of  the  two  nervous  systems?  The  sym- 
pathetic system,  as  we  have  seen,  is  absolutely 
dependent  on  the  brain  system  for  the  supply  of 
materials  with  which  it  operates.  How  does  your 
brain — the  arbiter  of  your  conscious  ego — per- 
form its  share  of  the  divided  labors? 

If  you  consider  the  matter  attentively,  you  will 
probably  be  disposed  to  admit  that  the  answer  is 
not  greatly  to  your  credit. 

More  than  likely  you  supply  the  digestive  ap- 
paratus, which  is  the  laboratory  wherein  the  sym- 
pathetic nervous  system  directs  the  preparation 
of  materials  for  feeding  its  vast  army  of  cells, 
with  food  that  is  often  of  doubtful  quality,  or 


130  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

wrongly  apportioned  in  its  properties,  or — what 
in  the  end  is  almost  as  bad — in  excessive  quantity. 

The  result  is  that  the  sympathetic  nerve  ganglia 
are  put  to  their  wits'  end  to  know  how  to  make 
bad  materials  into  wholesome  nourishment. 

They  have  thrust  on  them  an  excessive  supply 
of  starch  and  sugars  calculated  to  excite  mutiny 
in  the  ranks  of  muscle  cells  that  demand  proteids. 

Or,  on  the  other  hand,  they  receive  an  excessive 
quantity  of  proteids — because  your  palate  chances 
to  be  overfond  of  meat — when  the  crying  need  is 
for  starchy  or  fatty  fuels. 

The  excess  quantities  of  one  kind  or  another 
must  be  removed  and  either  stored  away  in  out 
of  the  way  corners  of  the  organism — say,  as  fat 
about  the  waist  region — or  eliminated  promptly 
through  the  various  excretory  organs,  notwith- 
standing the  undue  strain  that  is  thus  put  upon 
these  organs,  to  prevent  the  disastrous  poisoning 
of  whole  galaxies  of  cells. 

All  these  tasks  the  sympathetic  nerves  direct 
with  marvelous  efficiency.  They  have  inherited 
their  skill  from  thousands  of  generations  of  an- 
cestors, and  they  manipulate  the  intricate  ap- 
paratus of  their  wonderful  chemical  laboratory  in 
a  way  that  far  surpasses  all  the  possibilities  of 
conscious  human  action.  But  they  feel  the  stress 
of  abnormal  living  none  the  less,  and  there  are 
limits  to  the  possibilities  of  their  setting  right 
the  disorganizing  influences  which  your  conscious 
derelictions  of  diet  impose  upon  them. 

In  particular  their  task  becomes  difficult  if,  as 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  131 

is  more  than  likely,  you  give  them  an  inadequate 
supply  of  oxygen,  because  you  prefer  to  live  and 
sleep  in  ill-ventilated  rooms. 

Perhaps  you  further  complicate  their  problem 
by  introducing  out  and  out  poisons,  such  as  al- 
cohol and  nicotine  and  caffeine,  which  tend  to 
paralyze  the  activities  of  the  digestive  laboratory 
and  interfere  with  the  normal  preparation  of 
pabulum  for  the  cells. 

It  is  even  probable  that  you  are  neglectful  about 
so  fundamental  a  matter  as  the  supply  of  ade- 
quate quantities  of  that  great  universal  diluent 
and  solvent,  water,  without  which  the  most  skilful 
laboratory  workers  of  the  digestive  system 
cannot  properly  perform  their  labors. 

Against  these  impositions  the  sympathetic 
nervous  system  usually  makes  no  protest.  It 
labors  incessantly  day  and  night  to  make  the  best 
of  the  hard  task  you  set  it — to  correct,  as  far  as 
may  be,  the  mistakes  that  you,  the  consciously 
directive  and  supposedly  intelligent  member  of 
the  coalition,  are  constantly  making.  If  too 
greatly  imposed  upon,  however,  the  ganglia  of 
the  sympathetic  system  at  last  make  protest  that 
is  heard  at  the  headquarters  in  the  brain — 
registered  usually  in  the  form  of  disagreeable  or 
painful  sensations  which  you  interpret  as  indi- 
gestion, mal-nutrition,  or  aches  variously  located 
or  as  a  general  condition  of  depression. 

Then  the  response  you  make  is,  not  to  correct 
the  errors  of  your  diet  and  hygiene,  but  to  go  to 
a  physician  and  ask  for  some  magic  drug  that 


132  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

will  set  right  the  complex  machinery  at  a  dose,  to 
make  amends  for  all  your  hygienic  sins  of  com- 
mission and  omission. 

The  doctor  cannot  supply  such  a  remedy  of 
course;  he  would  have  greater  skill  than  the 
chemists  of  the  sympathetic  nervous  system  itself 
if  he  could.  But  he  will  give  you  something  to 
palliate  your  symptoms,  accompanied  with  good 
admonitions  that  you  will  for  the  most  part  fail  to 
heed;  and,  after  a  momentary  period  of  relief 
you  will  go  on  imposing  upon  the  patient  and 
long-suffering  sympathetic  nervous  system  that 
constitutes  your  other  self  in  the  same  reckless 
manner  as  before. 

Not  a  commendable  way,  surely,  for  a  com- 
mander-in-chief  to  treat  a  loyal,  efficient,  and 
ever  vigilant  lieutenant  of  the  all-important  com- 
missary department :  that  you  will  admit. 

Imposing  on  Brain  and  Spinal  Cord 

Of  course  your  derelictions  of  diet  and  general 
hygiene,  which  thus  put  impossible  tasks  upon  the 
sympathetic  nervous  system,  and  which  inevita- 
bly accomplish  the  derangement  of  function  of 
various  and  sundry  of  your  bodily  tissues,  will 
make  its  influence  felt  on  that  other  nervous  sys- 
tem which  has  for  its  most  conspicuous  organs,  the 
spinal  cord  and  brain.  For  these  important  struc- 
tures are  not  only  directly  linked  with  all  the 
tissues  of  the  body  by  nerve  cords,  but  their  cells 
are  themselves  physical  structures  which  depend 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  133 

no  less  than  muscle  cells  or  gland  cells  on  the 
good  offices  of  the  sympathetic  system  for  their 
food  supplies  and  for  the  removal  of  the  waste 
products  of  their  activity. 

So  your  ill-treatment  of  the  sympathetic  sys- 
tem reacts  upon  the  brain  and  results  directly  in 
the  lowering  of  its  power  of  energizing  upon 
which  all  your  mental  functionings  depend.  Now 
things  are  working  in  a  vicious  circle. 

But  in  addition  to  this,  it  is  more  than  likely  that 
you  put  a  further  handicap  upon  your  brain  and 
the  nervous  apparatus  with  which  it  is  directly 
connected  by  the  tasks  to  which  you  subject  it. 

For  example,  it  is  probable  that  your  habits  of 
mental  work  are  not  of  the  best.  It  is  likely  that 
you  have  never  learned  the  value  of  regular 
sequence  of  work  time  and  rest  time  for  your  brain 
which  proper  habits  of  sleeping  would  give. 

It  is  likely  that  you  subject  your  brain  to  pe- 
riods of  undue  stress  through  overwork ;  that  you 
subject  it  to  the  wearing  influence  of  worry  or  of 
fits  of  temper. 

It  is  probable  that  you  take  into  your  system 
more  or  less  regularly  drugs  that  directly  inter- 
fere with  the  normal  functioning  of  the  brain 
cells,  of  which  drugs  alcohol,  nicotine,  and  caf- 
feine are  the  most  familiar  examples. 

All  these  things  constitute  impositions  on  the 
brain  cells  whose  proper  functioning  is  absolutely 
essential  to  your  normal  mental  activity.  And 
the  inevitable  result  of  such  imposition  is  that 
the  brain  cells  perform  their  functions  less  effi- 


134  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

ciently  than  they  otherwise  would  do.  It  is  dem- 
onstrable under  the  microscope  that  brain  cells 
that  have  been  overworked  suffer  an  actual  break- 
down of  their  substance  so  that  they  become  vacuo- 
lated,  as  the  technical  phrase  is ;  that  is  to  say,  por- 
tions of  the  active  cell  substance  are  substituted 
by  droplets  of  serum  that  have  no  more  power 
of  nervous  functioning  than  so  much  water. 

If  the  strain  is  not  too  long  continued,  the  brain 
cells  may  be  repaired  and  restored  to  their  nor- 
mal condition ;  but  if  the  imposition  is  carried  too 
far  there  results  actual  and  permanent  degenera- 
tion of  the  brain  cells  themselves. 

Such  a  condition  of  the  brain  cells  is  noted,  for 
example,  in  those  extreme  cases  in  which  the 
brain  has  been  subject  to  the  toxic  influence  of 
alcohol  habitually  for  prolonged  periods.  The 
brain  of  the  dipsomaniac  becomes  shrunken 
through  decay  of  its  essential  cells,  and  a  layer  of 
watery  fluid  between  the  brain  surface  and  its 
surrounding  membranes  takes  the  place  of  the 
essential  nerve  tissues. 

This  is  further  accentuated  if  the  virus  of 
syphilis  has  been  added  to  the  toxic  influences 
operating  against  the  brain  cells.  In  that  case 
the  decay  of  cells  may  become  so  noticeable  as  to 
lead  to  almost  complete  abolition  of  mentality. 
Frequently  the  walls  of  the  arteries  supplying  the 
brain  become  weakened  through  degeneration  of 
their  cells,  and  hemorrhage  into  the  brain  sub- 
stance causes  permanent  paralysis  or  ends  the 
life  of  the  patient  outright. 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  135 

Short  of  these  extreme  cases,  however,  the  brain 
that  is  subject  to  the  disturbing  influence  of  mal- 
nutrition and  overwork  and  worry  and  uncon- 
trolled bursts  of  emotion  carries  a  perpetual 
handicap  in  attempting  to  perform  its  function  of 
co-ordinating  the  messages  that  come  to  it  and 
regulating  the  responsive  muscular  activities.  It 
is  the  brain  thus  harassed  that  becomes  abnor- 
mally susceptible  to  impulses  from  the  outer  world 
and  erratic  and  inco-ordinate  in  its  responses  to 
impulses  in  general. 

The  person  whose  brain  cells  are  thus  malad- 
justed becomes  unduly  sensitive  to  noises  or 
disturbances  of  any  sort. 

He  is  irritable  and  emotional ;  he  cannot  adjust 
himself  to  the  minor  annoyances  that  are  inevi- 
table in  business  and  social  life.  He  becomes 
painfully  conscious  of  the  perverted  functioning 
of  his  visceral  system. 

He  is  afflicted  with  exaggerated  sensations 
which  may  take  the  form  of  acute  pains  or  of  a 
pervasive  sense  of  ill-being,  apprehension,  and 
hypochondria. 

Worst  of  all,  his  harassed  brain  cells  reach  a 
stage  of  sensitiveness  in  which  they  are  perpet- 
ually responsive  to  the  messages  sent  to  them 
from  various  parts  of  the  body.  This  means 
that  he  cannot  sleep :  and  prolonged  wakefulness 
in  itself  produces  further  exhaustion  of  the  brain 
cells,  as  the  experiments  of  Dr.  George  W.  Crile, 
the  famous  Cleveland  surgeon,  have  recently 
shown. 


136  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

When  your  nervous  mechanism  has  reached 
such  a  stage  of  derangement  as  this,  you  are  said 
to  be  suffering  from  neurasthenia  or  nervous 
prostration.  Your  less  charitable  friends  are  apt 
to  say  of  you  that  your  nerves  are  on  the  outside 
of  your  skin.  But  what  is  really  at  fault,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  not  so  much  the  nerves  themselves, 
which  after  all  only  convey  the  impulses  that  come 
to  them,  as  the  essential  cells  of  the  spinal  cord 
and  brain  where  these  impulses  are  normally 
gathered  and  controlled  or  co-ordinated. 

Your  telephone  wires  may  be  all  right.  It  is 
the  receiving  and  transmitting  apparatus  that  is 
at  fault. 

Remedies  Versus  Prevention 

The  specialist  to  whom  you  apply  prescribes 
just  what  you  might  expect,  now  that  you  know 
what  caused  your  condition  of  "  nerves." 

He  puts  you  on  a  rational  diet,  and  tells  you  to 
drink  plenty  of  water  and  little  of  anything  else 
unless  it  be  milk;  to  live  in  the  open  and  inhale 
any  amount  of  oxygen;  to  stop  work  and  worry, 
and  if  possible  to  get  into  the  country  where 
things  are  quiet  and  your  tired  brain  cells  can 
have  a  rest.  Perhaps  he  treats  you  with  a  high 
frequency  electric  current,  to  soothe  your  muscles 
and  arteries ;  he  may  use  the  resources  of  hydro- 
therapy  to  stimulate  your  enervated  and  rebel- 
lious tissues;  he  counsels  rest  in  bed  or  exercise 
in  the  open,  according  to  your  precise  stage  of 
cellular  demoralization.  Or  he  may  combine  most 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  137 

of  these  prescriptions  in  one  by  ordering  you  to 
the  Hot  Sprjngs. 

This  is  all  very  well ;  but  would  it  not  have  been 
a  good  deal  better,  from  your  standpoint,  to  have 
avoided  the  need  of  these  prescriptions?  Is  not 
this  pre-eminently  a  case  where  prevention  is 
better  than  cure?  Obviously;  but  how  prevent  a 
disaster  of  such  insidiousness  of  approach  and  of 
such  varied  factors  of  causation? 

To  be  sure  you  might  have  rationalized  your 
diet  and  your  habits  of  exercise,  and  that  would 
have  done  much  for  you. 

But  what  about  the  derangements  due  more 
specifically  to  perverted  activities  of  the  brain? 

It  is  easy  enough  to  counsel  moderation  and  the 
avoidance  of  overwork  and  worry,  and  the  like; 
but  it  is  obvious  that  advice  as  to  these  things 
may  partake  more  or  less  of  the  admonition  to 
lift  one's  self  up  by  one's  boot  straps. 

The  average  man  does  not  overwork  of  mere 
choice;  he  does  not  worry  because  he  prefers  to 
do  so;  he  does  not  even  give  way  to  bursts  of 
temper  without  effort  to  control  his  emotions.  If 
he  subjects  his  brain  to  these  disturbing  influ- 
ences, he  does  so  because  he  knows  not  how  to 
avoid  such  disturbances.  The  conditions  of  his 
environment  are  really  responsible  for  his  cere- 
bral maladjustment.  His  brain  cells  give  inco- 
ordinate responses  and  suffer  undue  fatigue 
because  impulses  that  come  to  them  from  the 
outer  world  are  excessive,  or  maladjusted  to  their 
capacity. 


138  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Square  Pegs  and  Round  Holes 

And  it  is  precisely  here  that  the  modern  psy- 
chologist steps  into  the  field  and  offers  a  solution 
of  the  problem  of  adjustment  of  the  average  brain 
to  the  average  environment.  The  difficulty,  says 
the  psychologist,  which  primarily  leads  to  the 
observed  condition  of  undue  nervousness  and  an 
unwarranted  number  of  nervous  breakdowns,  is 
that  a  very  large  number  of  brains,  under  the 
existing  condition,  are  so  trained  that  they  do  not 
have  a  fair  chance  to  functionate  normally. 

One  reason  is  that  the  young  men  and  women  of 
our  time  very  generally  select  their  vocations 
haphazard  and  without  reference  to  their  fitness 
or  unfitness  for  the  tasks.  Thus  there  are  num- 
bers of  misfits, — square  pegs  in  round  holes,  as 
the  saying  is. 

As  a  consequence,  work  is  performed  badly  and 
inefficiently,  while  the  workers  themselves  suffer 
undue  strain  attempting  to  keep  pace  with  other 
workers  who  are  inherently  better  adapted  for 
that  particular  task. 

Take  by  way  of  illustration  a  specific  case  cited 
by  one  of  the  prominent  modern  students  of  effi- 
ciency in  business,  Mr.  Harrington  Emerson. 
11  The  type  for  the  great  newspaper,"  he  says, 
"  is  set  up  by  linotype  operators.  Apprentice- 
ship is  rigorously  limited.  Some  operators  can 
never  get  beyond  the  2500-em  class,  others  with 
no  more  personal  effort  can  set  5000  ems.  Do 
the  employers  test  out  applicants  for  the  appren- 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  139 

ticeship  so  as  to  be  sure  to  secure  boys  who  will 
develop  into  the  5000-em  class?  They  do  not; 
they  select  applicants  for  any  near  reason  except 
the  fundamental  important  one  of  innate  fitness." 

It  is  obvious  that  under  these  conditions  a  good 
share  of  the  workers  will  be  in  the  2500-em  class, 
and  that  these  all  their  life  will  be  subject  to  un- 
due strain  in  attempting  to  compete  with  their 
5000-em  co-workers. 

And  this  specific  case  is  typical  of  what  applies 
in  a  thousand  other  lines  of  work,  both  mechani- 
cal and  mental. 

Mr.  Emerson  believes  that  the  difficulty  might 
be  met  by  providing  that  young  men  and  women 
to  enter  any  given  trade  or  profession  should  be 
selected  by  competent  specialists  who  have  "  sup- 
plemented natural  gifts  and  good  judgment  by 
analysis  and  synthesis  that  enable  them  to  per- 
ceive aptitudes  and  proclivities  even  in  the  very 
young,  much  more  readily  in  those  semi-matured, 
and  can  with  almost  infallible  certainty  point  out, 
not  only  what  work  can  be  undertaken  with  fair 
hope  of  success,  but  also  what  slight  modification 
or  addition  and  diminution  will  more  than  double 
the  personal  power." 

The  Psychologist  to  the  Rescue 

But  Professor  Hugo  Miinsterberg,  the  Harvard 
psychologist,  very  much  doubts  the  availability  of 
any  such  intuitional  power  as  this.  He  would  pin 
his  faith  rather  to  the  methods  of  laboratory,  and 


140  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

would  attempt  to  substitute  the  results  of  scien- 
tific investigation  for  what  he  terms  mere  guess- 
work. In  illustrating  what  may  be  done  in  this 
direction,  Professor  Miinsterberg  cites  various 
interesting  cases. 

He  tells,  for  example,  how  Mr.  S.  A.  Thompson 
applied  the  method  of  the  psychological  labora- 
tory to  testing  the  workers  in  a  bicycle  factory 
where  120  girls  were  inspecting  the  balls.  The 
results  of  this  test  were  so  remarkable  that  they 
may  well  be  given  in  detail.  The  case  is  pecu- 
liarly interesting  because  the  work  involved  was 
of  so  simple  a  character  that  it  might  almost  be 
thought  that  one  person  of  average  intelligence 
could  do  it  as  well  as  another. 

The  task  was  this :  The  girls  had  to  place  a  row 
of  small  polished  steel  balls  on  the  back  of  the  left 
hand,  and  while  they  were  rolled  over  and  over  in 
the  crease  between  two  of  the  fingers  placed  to- 
gether, they  were  minutely  examined  in  a  strong 
light,  and  the  defective  balls  were  picked  out  by 
the  aid  of  a  magnet  held  in  the  right  hand. 

A  simple  enough  task,  even  though  requiring 
close  attention  and  concentration.  But  now  note 
what  Professor  Miinsterberg  says : 

"  The  girls  were  working  ten  and  a  half  hours 
a  day.  Mr.  Thompson  soon  recognized  that  the 
quality  most  needed,  beside  endurance  and  indus- 
try, was  a  quick  power  of  perception  accompanied 
by  quick  responsive  action.  He  knew  that  the 
psychological  laboratory  has  developed  methods 
for  a  very  exact  measurement  of  the  time  needed 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  141 

to  react  on  an  impression  with  the  quickest  pos- 
sible movement ;  it  is  called  the  reaction-time,  and 
is  usually  measured  in  thousandths  of  a  second. 
He,  therefore,  considered  it  advisable  to  measure 
the  reaction-time  of  the  girls,  and  to  eliminate 
from  service  all  those  who  showed  a  relatively 
long  time  between  the  stimulus  and  reaction." 

The  test  resulted,  we  are  told,  in  showing  that 
many  of  the  most  intelligent,  hardest-working,  and 
most  trustworthy  girls  were  not  naturally  fitted 
for  the  task. 

When  these  misfits  were  eliminated,  it  was 
found  possible  to  shorten  the  hours  and  reduce 
more  and  more  the  number  of  workers,  with  the 
final  outcome  that  thirty-five  girls  did  the  work 
formerly  done  by  a  hundred  and  twenty,  and  that 
the  accuracy  of  the  work  at  the  higher  speed  was 
two-thirds  greater  than  at  the  former  very  slow 
pace. 

11  This  allowed  almost  a  doubling  of  the  wages 
of  the  girls  in  spite  of  their  shorter  working-day, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  considerable  reduction  in 
the  cost  of  the  work  for  the  factory." 


From  Laboratory  to  Work  Shop 

Such  a  result  is  surely  stimulative.  And  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  this  an  exceptional  case. 
But  the  work  is  only  begun. 

Professor  Miinsterberg,  however,  has  been  led 
to  take  the  matter  up  in  his  laboratories,  in  the 
endeavor  to  develop  tests  that  might  be  of  practi- 


142  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

cal  value  in  selecting  applicants  for  various  lines 
of  work. 

It  should  be  explained  that  the  delicate  ap- 
paratus of  the  psychological  laboratory  enables 
the  experimenter  to  test  such  important  matters 
as  the  reaction-time  of  any  given  brain  to  a  given 
stimulus,  the  time  required  by  the  brain  cells  of  a 
given  individual  to  make  a  selective  judgment,  and 
the  like ;  and  that  different  brains  differ  very  ma- 
terially as  to  these  important  and  fundamental 
reactions.  It  is  obvious  that  there  are  many  lines 
of  work  in  which  quick  reaction-time  is  one  of  the 
most  important  elements  for  the  development  of 
efficiency,  just  as  in  the  case  just  cited. 

But  it  is  seldom  possible  without  careful  analy- 
sis to  determine  just  what  the  elements  are  in  any 
given  case.  In  Professor  Miinsterberg's  words, 
"  The  subtler  nuances  of  difference  between  tasks 
can  be  gained  only  by  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  industry."  And  he  gives  this  very  striking 
illustration : 

1 '  In  the  case  of  a  well-known  type-setting  ma- 
chine, thousands  of  which  are  in  daily  use,  I  had 
the  impression  that  the  rapidity  of  the  perform- 
ance was  dependent  upon  the  quickness  of  the 
finger  reaction.  The  managers,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  found  that  the  most  essential  condition 
for  speed  in  the  whole  work  is  the  ability  to  re- 
tain a  large  number  of  words  in  memory  before 
they  are  set.  The  man  who  presses  the  keys 
rather  slowly  advances  more  rapidly  than  another 
who  moves  his  fingers  quickly,  but  must  make 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  143 

many  pauses  in  order  to  find  his  place  in  the  manu- 
script and  to  provide  himself  with  new  words. ' ' 

Commenting  on  this  case,  Professor  Miinster- 
berg  analyzes  the  factors  that  must  be  brought 
into  correlation  if  we  are  to  enable  the  individual 
to  make  a  wise  selection  of  a  vocation.  We  must 
consider,  he  says, ' '  first  the  actual  experiences  of 
managers;  secondly,  the  observations  of  skilled 
psychologists  in  the  industrial  concerns;  thirdly, 
psychological  and  experimental  investigations 
with  successful  and  unsuccessful  laborers;  and, 
fourthly,  experimental  studies  of  the  normal  vari- 
ability." 

He  points  out  that  if  such  a  programme  is  to  be 
realized  in  detail,  it  will  be  necessary  to  discrimi- 
nate between  inherited  traits  and  those  that  are 
acquired. 

Each  individual  must  be  studied  as  to  his  "  ca- 
pacities of  attention  and  emotion,  memory  and 
will  energy,  disposition  to  fatigue  and  to  restora- 
tion, imagination,  suggestibility  and  initiative, 
and  many  other  features." 

Practical  Tests  that  You  Can  Apply 

A  good  deal  of  this  will  be  doubtless  carried  out 
in  the  schools  of  the  not  distant  future.  In  the 
meantime,  you  may  personally  apply  practical 
tests  to  yourself  and  your  children  that  will  be  of 
the  utmost  value,  even  though  you  have  scant 
knowledge  of  psychology. 

You  can,  for  example,  see  that  your  children's 


144  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

eyes,  ears,  noses,  throats,  and  teeth  are  cared  for. 
Defects  of  any  of  these  organs  may  be  sources  of 
constant  irritation  to  the  brain.  Eye  strain,  due 
to  some  easily  remedied  error  of  refraction,  may 
cause  more  fatigue  of  the  brain  than  all  the  studies 
of  the  curriculum.  Dr.  S.  Josephine  Barker,  Di- 
rector of  Child  Hygiene  in  the  New  York  schools, 
states  that  among  the  school  children  of  the 
metropolis  "  there  are  60,000  cases  of  defective 
and  untreated  eyesight,  65,000  cases  of  defective 
nasal  breathing,  82,000  enlarged  tonsils,  and  400,- 
000  young  mouths  that  harbor  diseased  teeth. ' '  It 
would  be  hard  to  estimate  the  amount  of  brain 
wear,  exhaustion,  and  actual  perversion  inadvert- 
ently resulting. 

You  owe  it  to  your  children  to  see  that  they  are 
not  similarly  neglected. 

Give  careful  heed  also  to  the  inherent  traits  and 
capacities  of  your  children  as  revealed  in  their 
every-day  conduct.  Teach  them  nervous  control 
— control  over  their  emotions,  their  passions,  their 
egoistic  desires.  This  will  be  far  more  impor- 
tant than  anything  they  will  learn  at  school.  And 
in  aiding  them  to  select  vocations,  when  the  time 
comes  for  that,  consider  their  traits  of  mentality, 
their  innate  capacities,  rather  than  your  own 
predilections,  and  be  governed  accordingly. 

Remember  that  the  square  peg  in  the  round  hole 
is  at  best  a  slipshod  contrivance.  "  Better  a  good 
artisan  than  a  poor  artist  "  is  a  very  wholesome 
motto. 

As  to  yourself,  you  should  be  able  to  make  an 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  145 

analysis  of  your  own  mentality,  based  on  compari- 
son with  the  persons  with  whom  you  come  in  con- 
tact, that  will  be  of  inestimable  value  to  you.  Test 
yourself  by  wholesome  introspection — never,  how- 
ever, carried  to  the  stage  of  morbid  brooding — 
day  by  day,  and  determine  to  better  your  quality 
of  brain  action,  however  good  it  was  in  the  begin- 
ning. Remember  that  the  all-important  thing  is 
brain  control — capacity  to  restrain  irrational  re- 
sponses, to  turn  the  mind  into  normal  channels,  to 
bar  out  excessive  action  along  one  line,  which  con- 
stitutes worriment ;  to  rest  the  mind  by  diverting 
it  into  new  channels ;  to  gain  new  and  better  habits 
of  seeing,  feeling,  thinking,  and  acting. 

Your  Brain  as  a  Phonograph 

We  have  likened  the  brain  system  to  a  telephone 
system.  From  another  viewpoint  it  is  even  more 
closely  comparable  to  a  phonograph. 

But  the  brain  is  a  far  more  sensitive  and  uni- 
versal recorder  of  impressions  than  the  phono- 
graph, because  the  latter  takes  note  only  of  the 
sound  waves,  whereas  the  brain  makes  permanent 
record  of  every  sensation  that  comes  to  it, — not 
alone  of  sound  waves,  but  of  the  impressions  that 
are  registered  as  sensations  of  touch,  of  taste,  of 
smell,  and  of  sight. 

Each  individual  cell  is  a  tiny  storage  battery 
that  accumulates  energy,  and  the  cells  are  grouped 
together  by  connecting  fibrils. 

From  earliest  infancy,  vibrations  of  various 


146  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

kinds  are  being  sent  into  the  brain  centres  along 
the  various  nerve  paths,  and  channels  of  action 
are  being  worn  smooth  as  it  were,  so  that  particu- 
lar types  of  action  in  response  to  these  specific 
impulses  become  more  and  more  easy  and  "  nat- 
ural." This  is  what  we  really  mean  when  we  say 
that  certain  habits  of  thinking  and  acting  are  be- 
ing established. 

It  is  all-important  for  the  individual  that  the 
channels  of  nervous  action  thus  early  established 
should  be  those  that  result  in  right  rather  than  in 
wrong  action. 

Heredity  will  determine  something  as  to  this. 
We  all  know,  for  example,  that  habits  that  are 
easy  to  acquire  for  one  individual  are  hard  for 
another, — for  example,  playing  on  the  piano,  or  re- 
citing poetry,  or  learning  mathematics.  But  en- 
vironment and  practice  will  also  determine  much. 
We  do  not  inherit  knowledge ;  we  inherit  capacity 
to  learn.  The  brain  at  birth  is  a  blank  record ;  a 
more  or  less  sensitive  one  according  to  its  in- 
herited possibilities,  but  still  a  blank  with  all  its 
possibilities  unrealized,  and  unrealizable  except 
through  the  right  kind  of  experiences  in  after  life. 

Consider  the  treatment  you  give  your  mental 
phonograph  as  regards  the  matter  that  comes  to 
it  from  the  printed  page  along  the  channels  of 
vision;  and  ask  yourself  whether  you  give  your 
brain  a  chance  to  become  properly  educated. 

You  read  newspapers  doubtless.  That  is  impor- 
tant; but  are  newspapers  all-sufficient? 

You  read  novels,  and,  according  to  Emerson, 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  147 

novels  may  be  as  useful  as  Bibles,  if  they  teach 
the  right  lesson.  But  do  they  by  themselves  sup- 
ply an  all-sufficient  mental  pabulum? 

If  you  know  by  heart  all  the  best  fiction  in  the 
world,  and  nothing  else,  would  you  be  really  edu- 
cated in  a  proper  sense — fully  equipped  for  your 
life  work? 

Obviously  not.  So  you  need  to  supply  your 
mind  with  the  records  of  serious  books  in  which 
the  mature  thought  of  wise  men  of  earlier  genera- 
tions has  been  recorded  and  accumulated.  You 
need  to  supply  your  brain  with  matter  worth  re- 
membering as  material  for  building  an  effective 
mental  structure.  It  was  never  more  true  than 
to-day  that  knowledge  is  power.  And  never  be- 
fore was  so  much  new  knowledge  being  presented 
for  our  edification  each  day ;  for  this  is  the  period 
of  greatest  scientific  activity  that  the  world  has 
ever  known. 

Bear  in  mind,  then,  that  every  hour  you  give  to 
desultory  thought  and  vapid  conversation,  or  to 
trivial  reading  is  an  hour  not  merely  wasted  but 
devoted  to  the  permanent  damage  of  your  brain ; 
because  you  are  preserving  what  may  be  likened 
to  a  jangling,  discordant  noise  record,  graven  on 
a  phonograph  cylinder  that  might  have  received 
instead  a  record  of  fine  music. 

And  you  have  no  excuse.  For  in  these  days 
good  books  are  cheap  and  good  magazines  still 
cheaper.  There  are  free  lecture  courses  and  free 
libraries  everywhere.  So  regardless  of  your  cir- 
cumstances it  is  matter  of  choice  with  you  whether 


148  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

yon  will  fill  your  brain  cells  with  records  of  useful 
knowledge  or  make  it  a  lumber  room  for  an  ac- 
cumulation of  trash;  or,  to  hold  to  our  figure, 
whether  you  will  store  your  mental  phonograph 
with  the  vibrations,  let  us  say,  of  splendid  operas 
and  symphonies,  or  with  rag-time;  with  Caruso 
records  or  with  ribald  songs  of  the  underworld. 

The  Brain  Records  Are  Permanent 

It  is  obvious  that  after  middle  life  most  of  us 
have  very  few  experiences  that  could  be  called 
altogether  new. 

In  the  main  our  life  routine  is  but  a  matter  of 
perpetual  repetition  of  old  experiences.  Our 
brains  become  grooved  and  channeled  with  oft- 
repeated  messages  which  finally  come  to  be  trans- 
mitted so  automatically  that  they  tend  to  slip  into 
the  domain  of  the  unconscious  and  subconscious. 
We  perform  a  hundred  and  one  tasks  practically 
without  giving  them  a  thought,  though  they  were 
difficult  and  even  painful  when  they  were  first  per- 
formed. 

Our  ideas  and  ideals  become  fixed  and  estab- 
lished nearly  or  quite  beyond  alteration.  We  have 
settled  likes  and  dislikes;  our  vocabularies  be- 
come limited  to  certain  sets  of  words;  and  our 
phraseology  takes  on  unvarying  and  readily  recog- 
nizable forms. 

In  a  way,  most  of  us  by  middle  life  have  become 
fossilized  automata. 

It  is  familiar  experience  that  vastly  the  larger 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  149 

number  of  impressions  that  come  to  us  lapse 
presently  into  the  realm  of  the  unconscious.  But, 
though  unremembered,  they  nevertheless  are  per- 
manently recorded  in  the  brain.  Dr.  Frederick 
Peterson,  of  New  York,  has  published  an  interest- 
ing account  of  tests  made  by  him  in  association 
with  Dr.  Yung  at  Zurich,  Switzerland,  in  which 
methods  were  found  of  getting  at  the  unconscious 
and  subconscious  mentality  by  merely  pronounc- 
ing various  words  and  asking  the  patient  to  pro- 
nounce in  turn  the  first  words  that  come  into  his 
mind  in  response. 

By  such  a  test  it  is  possible  to  show  strange 
linkage  of  ideas  which  the  psychologist  can  inter- 
pret in  the  light  of  the  patient's  early  experiences, 
proving  that  the  brain  cells  permanently  retain 
records  of  events,  even  of  the  most  trivial  charac- 
ter, of  which  the  conscious  individual  has  no 
definite  recollection. 

Of  similar  import  is  the  work  of  the  Viennese 
physician  Freud,  whose  theories  of  the  interpreta- 
tion of  dreams  have  gained  such  wide  vogue  in 
recent  years.  He  shows  how  full  of  meaning  are 
the  records  that  come  into  the  foreground  in  the 
dream.  Daytime  experiences  to  which  you  gave 
no  thought  may  be  so  deep-graven  in  the  brain  as 
to  make  the  substance  of  haunting  dreams,  linked 
with  experiences  of  childhood  that  had  been  no 
part  of  conscious  mentality  for  perhaps  a  score 
of  years. 

Such  interpretation  of  dreams  as  the  Freudians 
make  goes  far  to  prove  that  each  and  every  experi- 


150  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

ence  of  our  lives — each  sensation,  each  thought, 
each  correlation  of  ideas;  every  hope,  desire,  ex- 
pectation, or  emotion — leaves  a  permanent  record 
in  the  mystic  galaxies  of  brain  cells. 

Bear  all  this  in  mind  as  you  are  choosing  your 
reading,  your  associates,  your  topics  of  thought 
and  conversation.  Remember  that  your  mind  at 
maturity  will  be  largely  what  you  have  chosen  to 
make  it.  "  As  a  man  thinketh,  so  is  he,"  is  the 
most  literally  true  of  maxims. 

And  remember,  too,  how  imperishable  is  the 
record.  Hour  by  hour  of  your  life  you  are  carving 
these  tell-tale  lines  in  your  brain ;  and  you  can  no 
more  transform  them  all  of  a  sudden  than  you  can 
change  your  phonograph  record  from  ragtime  to 
symphony  by  merely  wishing  it  changed. 

Building  a  New  Personality 

But  can  the  brain  records  be  changed  at  all! 
This  is  the  most  important  of  questions ;  back  of 
it  lies  the  whole  problem  of  education. 

In  point  of  fact,  it  is  possible  that  no  individual 
record  can  be  changed  except  to  make  it  more  in- 
tense, or  to  allow  it  to  become  enfeebled  through 
lack  of  repetition.  But  as  all  important  experi- 
ences are  complex,  it  is  possible  to  pile  up  new 
records  in  the  brain  of  such  character  as  will  tend 
to  subordinate  unfortunate  earlier  records,  and 
finally  to  make  them  relatively  inconsequential. 

So  there  is  always  the  cheering  possibility  of 
bringing  new  sets  of  cells  into  action, — of  making 


Are  Your  Nerves  in  Tune?  151 

good  records  to  supplement  and  subordinate  the 
bad  ones,  and  thus  in  effect  changing  the  charac- 
ter of  the  brain  action  and  of  the  personality  asso- 
ciated with  it. 

In  reality,  each  of  us  is  thus  building  a  new  per- 
sonality on  the  foundation  of  the  old  one,  day  by 
day. 

Remember  always  this  underlying  principle: 
doing  a  thing  once — good  thing  or  bad  thing — 
makes  it  easier  to  do  that  thing  again.  This  is  the 
basal  principle  of  nervous  action.  Start  a  grooved 
channel  of  nervous  impulses,  and  the  tendency  is 
to  repeat.  It  is  easier  for  future  impulses  to 
travel  the  old  track  than  to  break  into  new  chan- 
nels. 

In  reality  the  chief  function  of  volition  is  to  in- 
hibit the  responsive  action  of  the  brain  cells  which 
would  tend  to  result  in  sending  nervous  impulses 
along  old  channels ;  and  through  such  inhibition  to 
make  possible  the  opening  up  of  new  channels. 

Remember  that  *  *  will  power  ' '  is  largely  power 
to  prevent  action.  A  trained  will  is  one  that  holds 
the  brain  cells  in  leash,  as  it  were,  and  determines 
that  the  nervous  impulses  sent  out  shall  not  al- 
ways take  the  old  familiar  line  of  least  resistance. 
All  mental  discipline  may  be  summed  up  in  the 
development  of  this  inhibitory  power  of  the  will ; 
for  in  the  last  analysis  this  is  what  we  mean  by 
mental  training. 

But  all  that  has  been  said  emphasizes  the  lesson 
that  the  right  kind  of  training  of  the  brain  cells 
cannot  be  begun  too  early.  The  fewer  bad  habits 


152  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

of  nervous  action,  the  less  need  there  will  be  for 
unlearning  and  the  easier  will  be  the  task  of  dis- 
cipline. But  however  well  the  task  may  have  been 
begun,  the  habit  of  training  the  brain  cells  to  bet- 
ter and  better  lines  of  action  is  one  that  should  be 
continued  throughout  life. 

The  test  of  conscious  life  itself  is  to  be  able  to 
send  out  nerve  stimuli  from  the  brain.  The  test 
of  youth — regardless  of  years — is  to  be  able  to  set 
up  new  channels  of  innervation  so  grooved  that 
they  act  automatically  in  the  best  way.  And  noth- 
ing else  in  life  is  so  much  worth  while  as  to  have 
a  brain  trained  to  act  with  the  fullest  measure  of 
efficiency — to  the  full  limit  of  its  best  capacities. 

A  brain  thus  trained  will  know  how  to  select  the 
right  vocation,  and  how  rationally  to  conserve  its 
energies.  There  is  little  danger  that  nerves  con- 
trolled by  such  a  brain  will  ever  get  the  better  of 
you  and  ' '  grow  on  the  outside. ' '  They  will  always 
keep  their  place,  and  keep  "  in  tune." 


VI 

Can  You  See  Straight? 

in\0  you  see  things  as  they  are?  Do  things  look 
•*— *  to  you  as  they  look  to  others?  Do  you  know 
that  thousands  of  people  have  abnormal  vision, 
and  yet  are  not  aware  that  they  cannot  see  as 
others  see?  Eye-strain  may  cause  headache,  men- 
tal exhaustion,  neuralgia,  St.  Vitus'  dance,  and 
even  epilepsy. 

Thousands  of  people  suffer  from  one  or  another 
of  these  maladies,  due  to  eye-strain,  and  do  not 
know  the  cause.  Do  you  know  whether  you  are 
subject  to  brain  fag  in  this  way? 

In  particular  do  you  know  whether  your  chil- 
dren have  eye  defects  that  are  making  their  stud- 
ies difficult  and  threatening  them  with  permanent 
injury?  There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  chil- 
dren thus  affected.  You  should  know — not  guess 
— whether  or  not  yours  are  among  them. 

Again,  even  if  your  eyes  and  the  eyes  of  your 
children  are  normal,  do  you  know  how  to  keep 
them  normal?  If  not,  you  should  find  out.  Eyes 
are  too  valuable  an  asset  to  be  neglected.  This 
chapter  will  tell  you  how  to  care  for  them. 

.     Eye  Surgery 

Not  long  ago  I  spent  an  afternoon  in  the  oper- 
ating room  of  the  New  York  Eye  and  Ear  In- 

153 


154  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

firmary.  There  I  saw  Dr.  John  M.  Wheeler  per- 
form a  series  of  delicate  and  interesting  opera- 
tions. 

In  one  case  the  eyeball  was  cut  open  and  a  piece 
of  iris  snipped  out ;  in  another  the  lens  of  the  eye 
itself  was  extracted.  An  eyeball  was  cut  out  en- 
tirely and  its  place  supplied  with  a  bit  of  fatty 
tissue  cut  from  the  patient's  leg, — not  to  restore 
vision,  of  course,  but  to  prevent  the  socket  of  the 
eye  from  sinking. 

In  another  case  an  eye  that  had  too  much  in- 
ternal pressure  was  drilled  into  with  a  tiny 
trephine.  From  yet  another  eye  a  chip  of  steel 
from  a  chisel  was  extracted  with  a  gigantic  mag- 
net. 

In  yet  other  cases  the  muscles  of  the  eye  were 
cut  to  cure  a  squint. 

And,  most  curious  of  all,  perhaps,  an  eye  that 
was  opaque  at  the  "  sight  "  was  tattoed  with  In- 
dia ink  and  made  much  worse  for  the  moment  in 
order  that  later  it  might  be  restored  to  vision. 

It  was  all  very  interesting.  But  what  sank 
deepest  in  my  mind  was  a  chance  remark  of  one 
of  the  physician's  who  watched  the  operations,  as 
we  came  away  from  the  clinic.  "  It  is  a  wonder- 
ful thing,"  he  said,  "  to  be  able  to  restore  vision 
as  the  modern  ophthalmic  surgeon  does ;  but  most 
of  these  operations  would  have  been  uncalled  for 
if  the  patients  had  taken  better  care  of  their  eyes, 
particularly  in  childhood.  A  good  share  of  the 
conditions  that  make  the  operations  necessary  are 
due  directly  or  indirectly  to  slight  errors  of  re- 


Can  You  See  Straight?  155 

fraction  that  could  easily  have  been  remedied  at 
first  with  glasses.'* 

"  Errors  of  refraction."  That  is  the  phrase 
that  is  always  on  the  lips  of  the  eye  specialist. 
Being  interpreted,  it  means  merely  "  eyes  out  of 
focus."  We  all  know  what  that  means  nowadays, 
because  we  all  take  pictures  with  the  camera  and 
so  are  familiar  with  the  blurred  image  of  an  out- 
of-focus  picture.  And  the  eye  is  just  a  living 
camera;  the  pictures  on  its  sensitized  film  (the 
retina)  may  be  sharply  defined  or  they  may  be 
blurred.  And  you  do  not  like  a  blurred  picture 
any  better  in  the  eye  than  you  like  it  on  the  photo- 
graphic plate ;  so  the  eye  that  receives  this  blurred 
image  strives  constantly  to  get  it  in  focus.  If  it 
has  difficulty  in  doing  so,  there  is  what  the  special- 
ist calls  *  *  an  error  of  refraction. ' ' 

Suppose,  for  example,  that  the  globes  of  your 
eyes  are  a  trifle  shorter  than  they  should  be.  Then 
the  lens  of  your  eye,  which  bends  the  rays  of  light 
and  brings  them  together  precisely  as  does  the 
lens  of  a  camera,  will  have  a  focal  point  lying  a 
little  behind  the  retina,  and  you  will  always  be 
striving,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  to  adjust 
the  focusing  apparatus.  This  will  mean  a  con- 
stant and  abnormal  straining  of  the  muscles  of  the 
eye.  If  the  shape  of  your  eyeball  is  but  slightly 
abnormal,  the  focusing  apparatus  may  overcome 
the  defect,  and  you  may  have  sharp  vision.  But 
the  correction  is  made  at  the  expense  of  an  un- 
usual and  fatiguing  effort. 

It  is  a  very  wonderful  mechanism,  this  focusing 


156  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

apparatus  in  your  eye ;  a  very  puzzling  mechanism 
when  we  reflect  that  the  normal  eye  is  a  camera  of 
universal  focus.  With  the  photographic  camera, 
you  change  the  focus  by  lengthening  or  contract- 
ing the  bellows,  thus  carrying  the  lens  farther 
from  the  sensitized  plate  or  bringing  it  nearer  ac- 
cordingly as  you  wish  to  photograph  nearby  or 
distant  objects.  But  with  the  human  eye  no  such 
change  is  possible.  The  lens  lies  back  of  the  dia- 
phragm (called  the  iris)  precisely  as  in  the  photo- 
graphic camera,  but  its  position  is  fixed ;  it  cannot 
be  brought  nearer  the  retina. 

Yet  the  eye  is  at  once  telescope  and  microscope, 
focusing  far  objects  and  near  in  seeming  defiance 
of  the  laws  of  optics. 

This  effect  is  accomplished  by  one  of  the  most 
ingenious  mechanisms  that  nature  ever  devised. 

The  Crystalline  Lens 

The  gist  of  the  matter  is  this :  the  lens  of  the 
eye,  although  called  "  crystalline,"  is  not  a  rigid 
body,  like  the  lens  of  a  telescope  or  microscope ;  it 
is  more  like  a  bit  of  very  firm  gelatine. 

It  is  held  in  position  by  an  elastic  capsule  at- 
tached at  the  sides  of  the  eyeball.  Similarly  at- 
tached to  the  circumference  of  the  eyeball,  just 
back  of  the  iris,  is  a  circle  of  muscular  tissue. 
When  this  muscle  contracts,  it  tends  to  constrict 
the  iris  and  it  relaxes  the  capsule  that  encloses  the 
crystalline  lens.  The  resilient  lens,  in  virtue  of 
its  elasticity,  assumes  a  thicker  form,  and  a  more 


Can  You  See  Straight?  157 

convex  anterior  surface.  And  this  is  precisely  the 
change  that  is  necessary  to  refract  the  rays  of 
light  coming  from  a  nearby  object  and  bring  them 
to  a  focus  on  the  retina. 

When  your  attention  is  directed  to  such  a  near- 
by object,  the  series  of  changes  just  outlined  takes 
place  within  the  eye,  and  the  result  is  equivalent 
to  an  extension  of  the  bellows  of  the  camera. 

Contrariwise,  when  the  eye  is  directed  to  a  dis- 
tant object,  the  ciliary  muscle  relaxes,  the  iris  ex- 
pands, and  the  capsule  of  the  crystalline  lens, 
freed  from  muscular  tension,  exerts  its  con- 
strictive  force  on  the  lens,  flattening  that  essen- 
tial structure.  This  changes  the  refractive  power 
of  the  lens  in  precisely  the  way  necessary  for  fo- 
calization  of  light  coming  in  almost  parallel  beams 
from  the  distant  object. 

Primitive  Eyes 

It  is  obvious  that  until  some  such  mechanism  as 
that  just  described  was  evolved,  light  could  not  be 
brought  to  a  focus,  and  the  organism  would  be 
aware  only  in  a  vague  and  general  way  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  objects  from  which  the  light  came. 
Without  this  perfected  eye,  creatures  could  de- 
velop a  considerable  degree  of  intelligence,  as 
such  insects  as  the  bee  and  ant  amply  prove.  Yet}< 
we  may  well  doubt  whether  without  a  universal- 
focus  eye  any  being  could  ever  have  come  above 
the  plane  of  intelligence  of,  let  us  say,  the  fish. 

Only  a  creature  having  vivid  impressions  of  its 


158  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

surroundings  far  and  near,  such  as  vision  alone 
can  give,  could  get  clear  notions  of  the  world  in 
which  we  live ;  and  such  sensations  are  the  build- 
ing-stones of  the  mind. 

The  bee  and  the  ant  see  only  a  little  way ;  they 
depend  on  scent  for  their  knowledge  of  distant  ob- 
jects, unless,  indeed,  they  perceive  vibrations  of 
which  we  know  nothing;  and  the  range  of  im- 
pressions supplied  by  odors  is  at  best  very 
limited. 

The  vibrations  of  sound  provide  information  of 
a  more  comprehensive  kind,  once  ears  were 
evolved  to  receive  them;  yet  even  the  records  of 
hearing  are  relatively  vague  and  unlocalized  as 
contrasted  with  the  records  of  vision.  The  range 
of  sound  waves  is  also  limited.  Sound  covers 
only  1,040  feet  per  second,  while  light  traverses 
186,000  miles  of  space  in  the  same  time. 

Sound  requires  a  substantial  medium  in  air  or 
liquid  or  solid ;  light  voyages  in  the  ether. 

Consider  how  largely  your  impressions  of  the 
world  are  visual  impressions.  How  utterly 
changed  the  world  would  seem  if  you  had  no  men- 
tal picture  of  things  seen:  no  conception  of  light 
or  of  color.  Your  mind  would  be  a  blank  as  to 
entire  fields  of  knowledge.  You  would  have  only 
vague  notions  of  distant  objects;  no  knowledge  of 
form  or  size  or  shape  or  texture  except  of  such 
objects  as  you  could  actually  touch.  Yours  would 
be  a  sterile  and  barren  world — dark  and  picture- 
less — as  contrasted  with  the  world  of  light  and 
color  and  form  and  distance. 


Can  You  See  Straight?  159 

Such  must  have  been  the  world  of  all  creatures 
before  eyes  were  evolved.  But  eyes  came  early  in 
the  scheme  of  evolution. 

The  Eyes  of  Lower  Animals 

The  earliest  plan  for  making  possible  both  near 
and  far  vision  was,  however,  somewhat  more 
primitive  than  the  one  finally  evolved.  In  the  eye 
of  the  fish  the  crystalline  lens  is  spherical,  and 
when  the  eye  is  at  rest  the  focus  is  on  nearby  ob- 
jects, instead  of  on  distant  ones  as  in  the  case  of 
man  and  the  higher  animals.  If  the  fish  wishes  to 
scrutinize  distant  objects,  its  spherical  lens  is 
moved  backward  in  the  liquid  of  the  eyeball,  thus 
changing  the  focus  precisely  as  it  is  changed  by 
contracting  the  bellows  of  a  camera.  But  the 
movement  is  limited,  and  the  arrangement  cannot 
give  anything  like  so  wide  a  range  of  focusing 
power  as  is  possible  with  the  perfected  lens  of 
mammals  and  man. 

In  the  amphibia,  of  which  the  frog  is  a  familiar 
representative,  the  eye  is  still  fish-like,  in  that  fo- 
cusing is  done  by  shifting  of  the  lens.  The  ciliary 
muscle  first  becomes  fully  developed,  and  assumes 
its  function  of  changing  the  shape  of  lens,  in  the 
eyes  of  reptiles,  which  are  the  next  higher  order 
of  creatures  in  the  zoological  scale. 

The  eyes  of  all  mammals  are  identical  with 
those  of  man  in  the  method  of  manipulation  of  the 
focusing  apparatus ;  that  is  to  say,  focusing  is  ac- 
complished by  changing  the  shape  and  not  the 


160  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

position  of  the  lens.  But,  whereas  the  lens  itself 
is  flattened,  like  that  of  man,  in  diurnal  animals, 
it  is  spherical  in  nocturnal  and  aquatic  animals. 
In  the  nature  of  the  case,  animals  that  prowl  by 
night,  and  those  that  inhabit  the  water,  have  a 
relatively  restricted  range  of  vision.  Their  eyes 
must  for  the  most  part  be  used  in  viewing  objects 
near  at  hand,  so  doubtless  it  is  to  their  advantage 
to  have  a  crystalline  lens  that  is  more  of  a  micro- 
scope than  a  telescope. 

Probably  it  would  be  to  man 's  advantage,  under 
the  conditions  of  modern  civilization,  if  his  lens 
could  revert  somewhat  toward  the  spherical  type, 
since  so  many  people  nowadays  are  obliged  to 
wear  convex  lenses. 


Binocular  Vision 

The  building  up  of  brain  records  and  mental 
impressions  from  sensations  received  through  the 
eyes,  on  the  part  of  our  remote  ancestors,  must 
have  become  more  and  more  precise  as  the  eye  was 
perfected,  and  increasingly  varied  as  the  evolving 
races  found  new  environments  and  were  subjected 
to  new  conditions.  Swiftly  moving  creatures,  par- 
ticularly those  that  hunt  or  are  hunted,  obviously 
need  sharp  vision  for  objects  at  all  distances: 
their  lives  depend  upon  it. 

And  if  you  have  been  much  in  the  open,  you  will 
not  question  that  birds  and  animals  in  general 
have  good  eyes. 

There  is  one  really  important  difference,  how- 


Can  You  See  Straight?  161 

ever,  between  the  type  of  vision  of  birds  and  all 
lower  orders  of  mammals  and  the  vision  of  men. 
If  you  look  at  a  bird  you  will  see  that  its  eyes  are 
set  on  opposite  sides  of  the  head,  and  hence  must 
receive  totally  different  images  at  a  given  moment. 
A  bird  cannot  look  at  any  object  with  both  eyes 
at  once.  The  same  thing  is  true,  in  greater  or  less 
measure,  of  most  mammals. 

It  is  only  creatures  of  the  monkey  tribe  that 
share  with  man  the  capacity  to  fix  both  eyes  on 
the  same  object  and  bring  the  two  images  into 
such  harmony  that  they  are  registered  in  the  brain 
as  a  single  image. 

This  so-called  binocular  vision  is  not  without 
its  disadvantages.  The  eyes  of  a  bird  sweep  all 
horizons  at  a  glance,  and  may  make  it  aware  of 
the  approach  of  an  enemy  from  any  direction.  And 
for  a  creature  subject  to  attack  on  all  sides  this 
is  obviously  an  advantage.  Seeing  in  all  direc- 
tions is  less  important  when  the  bird  is  one  that 
habitually  hunts  and  is  not  itself  hunted;  and  so 
we  find  that  in  the  case  of  eagles  and  hawks,  and 
even  more  conspicuously  in  the  case  of  owls,  the 
eyes  tend  to  assume  a  forward  location  in  the 
head,  limiting  somewhat  the  range  of  vision  but 
making  it  possible  to  see  the  same  object  with  both 
eyes  at  the  same  time, — not  to  see  it  clearly  in  a 
single  image  as  the  human  eyes  do,  but  neverthe- 
less to  gain  such  a  double  view  as  will  give  a  clear 
notion  of  the  distance  of  the  object. 

This  is  obviously  important  for  such  creatures 
as  the  hawk  and  the  owl,  which  must  be  able  to 


1 62  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

pounce  upon  their  prey  and  strike  out  with  their 
talons  at  precisely  the  right  moment  in  seizing  it. 

It  is  for  this  reason,  doubtless,  that  the  eyes 
of  predacious  mammals  are  placed  relatively  near 
together  in  the  head,  to  permit  binocular  vision ; 
whereas  the  eyes  of  creatures  that  are  hunted  are 
placed  at  the  sides  of  the  head,  to  give  wide  vision 
at  the  expense  of  concentration. 

Contrast  the  face  of  a  cat  with  that  of  a  mouse, 
by  way  of  illustration.  For  the  cat,  it  is  impor- 
tant to  be  able  to  locate  the  precise  distance  of 
its  prey  as  it  springs ;  but  for  the  mouse  what  is 
chiefly  important  is  to  be  able  to  discover  an 
enemy  in  any  direction  rather  than  to  gauge  the 
precise  distance  of  the  enemy. 

What  Double  Vision  Accomplishes 

The  advantages  of  binocular  vision,  however, 
for  a  creature  of  developed  intelligence,  and  in 
particular  for  one  whose  habits  bring  it  in  contact 
with  new  surroundings  from  time  to  time,  are 
very  striking. 

Not  only  the  distance  of  objects  but  their  form 
is  revealed  by  binocular  vision  as  it  could  not  be 
when  the  view  is  that  of  a  single  eye. 

It  is  obvious  that  your  two  eyes,  when  focused 
on  a  given  object  fairly  near  at  hand,  do  not  re- 
ceive precisely  the  same  image  unless  the  object 
focused  is  a  flat  surface.  If  you  look  at  a  book 
lying  on  the  table  in  front  of  you  in  such  position 
that  you  see  the  back  and  one  side  and  the  end  in 


Can  You  See  Straight?  163 

perspective,  you  gain  a  perfectly  clear  notion  of 
that  book  as  a  structure  having  three  dimensions, 
and  the  reason  you  do  so  is  because  the  right  eye 
gets  a  slightly  different  view  of  the  book  from  that 
gained  by  the  left  eye, — a  fact  that  you  may  read- 
ily verify  by  closing  first  one  and  then  the  other. 
Otherwise  stated,  your  vision,  when  you  look  with 
both  eyes,  is  stereoscopic. 

You  are  therefore  constantly  gaming  impres- 
sions as  to  the  precise  form  of  objects,  and  these 
impressions  are  stored  away  in  your  brain  and 
form  part  of  the  sub-structure  of  an  important 
aspect  of  your  mental  development. 

At  the  same  time  that  your  eyes  give  you  defi- 
nite impressions  as  to  the  shape  of  objects,  they 
give  you  precise  impressions  also  as  to  the  dis- 
tance of  any  object  on  which  you  focus,  because 
your  two  eyes  must  be  made  to  turn  toward  each 
other  in  order  to  focus  on  a  nearby  object.  You 
are  not  ordinarily  conscious  of  this  effort,  yet  it 
is  registered  in  your  brain,  and  the  difference  in 
effort  required  to  focus  on  nearby  and  on  far-off 
objects  is  interpreted  as  determining  the  actual 
distance  of  the  object,  even  though  it  be  located 
on  a  plane  surface. 

You  can,  for  example,  judge  with  a  good  degree 
of  accuracy  the  distance  of  a  printed  page  held 
before  your  eyes,  provided  you  look  with  both 
eyes.  But  you  can  judge  much  less  accurately  if 
you  look  with  a  single  eye. 

But,  of  course,  there  is  no  gain  without  the  pos- 
sibility of  attendant  loss,  and  binocular  vision 


164  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

adds  some  complications  to  the  visual  apparatus 
that  give  opportunity  for  maladjustment.  If,  for 
example,  the  muscles  that  control  the  movements 
of  the  eyeballs  fail  to  work  in  harmony,  the  eyes 
will  tend  to  act  independently,  and  while  this 
would  answer  very  well  for  a  bird  or  a  dog,  it  will 
not  do  at  all  for  a  man,  and  the  condition  must  be 
remedied  by  surgical  procedure. 

Again,  it  is  essential  with  binocular  vision  that 
the  two  eyes  shall  focus  exactly  alike ;  yet  in  point 
of  fact  no  two  eyes  ever  are  identical.  Usually 
the  difference  is  not  so  great  that  it  is  noticed,  but 
very  often  there  is  enough  difference  to  cause  con- 
stant, even  though  unrecognized,  eye-strain. 

The  two  eyes  then  try  constantly  to  adjust  them- 
selves to  each  other,  or  else  one  gives  up  the  task, 
and  leaves  all  the  work  for  its  stronger  or  less 
aberrant  fellow. 


Eyes  Out  of  Focus 

The  aberrations  that  disturb  the  focus  and  cause 
abnormal  vision  may  depend  on  anomalies  of  the 
eyeball  itself,  or  of  that  wonderful  mechanism,  the 
crystalline  lens. 

Thus,  the  lens  may  be  too  thick  or  too  thin  for 
the  eyeball  in  which  it  is  adjusted,  in  which  case 
its  possessor  is  "  near-sighted "  or  "  far- 
sighted."  Or  it  may  be  asymmetrical,  in  which 
case  the  image  it  casts  is  distorted  and  its  pos- 
sessor suffers  from  lenticular  astigmatism.  The 
same  defects  of  vision  may  result,  as  we  have  seen, 


Can  You  See  Straight?  165 

if  the  ball  of  the  eye  itself  is  too  short  or  too  long 
or  asymmetrical.  In  either  case,  the  rays  of  light 
will  not  all  focus  properly,  even  if  some  of  them 
do. 

Yet  again,  the  lens  may  come  to  lack  resiliency ; 
it  may  harden  and  lose  its  responsiveness.  This 
is  very  likely  to  occur  with  advancing  age;  and 
everybody  knows  that  elderly  people  often  have 
good  distant  vision  but  are  unable  to  focus  on 
nearby  objects.  Artificial  lenses  easily  remedy 
these  defects.  But  a  far  more  serious — and  for- 
tunately also  a  far  less  common — concomitant  of 
old  age  may  come  in  the  form  of  a  clouding  of  the 
lens,  developing  finally  a  milky  opacity  that  shuts 
out  the  light  altogether. 

This  condition  is  called  cataract.  It  causes  par- 
tial or  total  blindness,  that  is  incurable  except  by 
removal  of  the  lens  itself.  Fortunately,  however, 
this  is  an  operation  that  involves  no  difficulties  for 
the  trained  ophthalmic  surgeon. 

You  may  cut  off  the  antenna  that  bears  the  eye 
of  a  crustacean — say  a  crab  or  lobster — and  a  new 
eye  will  grow  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  one.  But 
the  specialized  tissues  of  higher  animals  are  not 
thus  restored,  and  the  lens  once  gone  is  gone  for- 
ever. The  transparent  fluids  of  the  eye  will  take 
its  place,  but  its  function  of  refracting  light  and 
bringing  it  to  a  focus  on  the  retina  must  there- 
after be  performed  by  heavy  convex  glasses.  With 
the  aid  of  these,  however,  a  good  degree  of  vision 
may  be  given  to  eyes  that  are  totally  blind  before 
the  removal  of  the  cataract. 


166  AdHing  Years  to  Your  Life 

Eye  Defects  that  We  Nearly  All  Have 

These  surgical  cases,  however,  do  not  so  much 
concern  you  as  do  the  more  usual  defects  of  re- 
fraction already  referred  to.  These,  under  con- 
ditions of  modern  life,  are  all  but  universal. 

The  eye  that  is  called  upon  to  focus  on  fine 
print,  page  after  page,  is  subject  to  a  strain  that 
in  a  sense  is  abnormal ;  for  the  ancestral  eye  was 
chiefly  employed  in  long-distance  work,  as  became 
the  eye  of  the  fisher,  the  hunter,  and  the  husband- 
man. And  the  structure  of  such  an  organ  cannot 
be  radically  changed  in  a  few  hundred  genera- 
tions. Beading,  as  applied  to  people  in  general, 
is  a  very  modern  habit.  Only  two  or  three  gen- 
erations ago  half  the  women  of  England,  and  a 
large  number  of  the  men,  were  obliged  to  make 
their  mark  in  witnessing  their  marriage  contracts. 
Universal  literacy,  applied  to  the  masses  in  gen- 
eral, is  a  social  development  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

So  it  is  almost  a  matter  of  course  that  the  mod- 
ern eye  yields  habitually  to  the  abnormal  strain, 
and  cries  out  for  aid. 

If  aid  is  not  forthcoming,  messages  of  distress 
are  sent  to  the  brain  that  are  interpreted  as  head- 
aches, irritability  of  temper,  and  the  like.  Mean- 
time, the  eyes  themselves  become  inflamed,  or 
through  the  excessive  muscular  action  required  in 
focusing  they  assume  a  permanent  condition  of 
"  squint,"  which  the  specialist  terms  strabismus. 
Short  of  this,  the  strain  may  produce  weariness  of 


Can  You  See  Straight?  167 

brain,  and  the  defects  of  vision  may  be  instrumen- 
tal in  retarding  the  progress  of  the  child,  when  the 
very  existence  of  the  defect  is  unsuspected. 

Thousands  of  children  pore  over  their  books 
without  ever  being  able  to  see  clearly  a  single  let- 
ter; they  themselves  quite  unconscious  that  their 
vision  is  not  normal,  and  their  parents  and  teach- 
ers equally  oblivious.  Such  children  carry  a  need- 
less burden. 

Take  steps  to  find  out  if  your  child  is  of  this 
number.  If  you  have  reason  to  suspect  abnormal- 
ity of  vision,  have  the  matter  decided  by  a  com- 
petent physician;  not  by  a  spectacle  vendor  or  op- 
tician whose  legitimate  business  is  merely  to  make 
glasses  on  prescription,  not  to  write  the  pre- 
scription itself. 

For  those  who  cannot  afford  to  pay  a  physician, 
there  are  clinics  where  the  most  skilful  attention 
is  given  free  of  charge. 

How  the  Tests  Are  Made 

When  the  oculist  tests  your  eyes,  he  places  you 
with  your  back  to  a  light  and  reflects  the  light 
through  your  pupil  with  a  little  concave  mirror 
called  an  ophthalmoscope. 

This  instrument  was  invented  by  the  celebrated 
German  physicist,  Helmholtz.  Its  user  looks 
through  a. small  hole  in  the  centre  of  the  mirror, — 
a  simple  but  ingenious  device  that  enables  him  to 
look  into  the  depths  of  your  eye  and  see  the  sur- 
face of  the  retina  as  if  it  were  on  the  outside. 


1 68  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Lenses  of  different  curvature  adjusted  in  the  mir- 
ror enable  the  user  to  determine  the  curve  of  the 
retina  and  to  detect  any  departure  from  the  nor- 
mal. It  is  possible  also  with  the  ophthalmoscope 
to  observe  the  condition  of  the  blood  vessels  in  the 
retina,  and  thus  to  detect  other  abnormalities  than 
those  having  to  do  with  refraction. 

After  the  test  with  the  ophthalmoscope  has 
given  a  fairly  accurate  idea  as  to  the  errors  of  re- 
fraction, further  tests  are  made  with  lenses  of 
different  curvature,  in  which  your  own  observa- 
tion supplements  the  results  of  the  ophthalmo- 
scopic  examination. 

With  young  people  in  particular,  the  action  of 
the  ciliary  muscles  is  so  persistent  and  the  con- 
striction of  the  iris  so  marked  under  the  influ- 
ence of  light  that  it  is  necessary  to  use  atropin  or 
its  modern  derivative  homatropin  to  relax  the 
muscle  and  dilate  the  pupil. 

Under  these  conditions  the  crystalline  lens  as- 
sumes what  may  be  considered  its  normal  shape, 
and  the  large  aperture  of  the  iris  makes  full  view 
of  the  retina  possible.  As  the  muscle  that  nor- 
mally changes  the  shape  of  the  lens  is  temporarily 
paralyzed,  the  tests  will  show  the  refractive  con- 
ditions, uninfluenced  by  any  voluntary  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  patient.  It  is  thus  possible  to 
make  a  more  accurate  and  reliable  test  of  the 
actual  conditions  of  refraction  than  could  be  made 
while  the  ciliary  muscle  has  normal  action  and  is 
persistently  trying  to  focus. 

The  prescription  which  the  oculist  writes  seems 


Can  You  See  Straight?  169 

mystifying  to  the  average  layman.  Its  "  0.  D." 
and  "  0.  S.,"  however,  imply  nothing  more  than 
"  right  eye  "  and  "  left  eye  ";  and  the  mysteries 
of  its  formulas  may  be  summed  up  in  the  statement 
that  the  lenses  for  which  it  calls  are  either  plainly 
spherical,  concave  or  convex  (their  power  desig- 
nated in  "  diopters  ")  or  are  ground  on  a  cylin- 
drical foundation,  the  axis  of  which  is  so  adjusted 
as  to  correct  the  asymmetry  of  the  cornea  or  lens 
or  eyeball  that  causes  the  condition  known  as 
astigmatism. 

A  large  number  of  individuals  suffer  from  this 
condition,  and  hence  have  blurred  vision,  without 
ever  recognizing  their  defect. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  a  modern  school  of 
impressionistic  painters  owes  its  origin  to  the  fact 
that  the  master  suffered  from  astigmatic  vision, 
and  saw  objects  at  a  distance  less  clearly  than 
people  of  normal  vision  see  them. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  obviously  desirable  that 
you  and  I  should  see  objects  about  us  as  they  are, 
or  at  least  as  other  people  see  them.  Clear  vision 
is  at  a  premium  in  many  callings ;  and,  aside  from 
that,  the  relief  and  comfort  that  people  with  astig- 
matic eyes  receive  from  properly  gauged  glasses 
is  something  to  which  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
individuals  could  testify. 

Taking  Care  of  the  Eyes 

As  a  rule,  if  your  eye  is  astigmatic  you  must 
wear  the  corrective  lenses  at  all  times.  For  the 


170  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

eye  once  distorted  in  shape  is  seldom  restored  to 
normality.  But  you  should  clearly  understand 
that  if  your  eyes  had  been  properly  cared  for  from 
childhood  they  probably  now  would  not  have  be- 
come astigmatic.  Like  most  other  permanent  eye- 
defects,  this  is  usually  traceable  to  overuse  or  in- 
correct use  under  unfavorable  conditions. 

The  eye  of  the  child  is  usually  normal  in  shape 
and  function.  If  properly  cared  for  it  will  usually 
remain  normal. 

So  it  becomes  an  important  question  for  each  of 
us  as  to  what  constitutes  the  right  treatment  of 
the  normal  eye. 

In  general,  rules  for  hygiene  of  the  normal  eye 
are  very  simple  and  easy  to  follow  out.  It  is 
scarcely  more  than  the  reiteration  of  a  truism  to 
say  that  you  should  not  read  fine  print  persist- 
ently, or  focus  on  minute  objects  of  any  kind,  with- 
out periods  of  rest.  Even  in  reading  ordinary 
print,  you  should  glance  up  from  time  to  time,  and 
give  the  ciliary  muscles  a  moment  of  relaxation  by 
casually  looking  at  some  distant  object  or  throw- 
ing the  eyes  altogether  out  of  focus. 

You  cannot  hold  your  arm  extended  for  even  a 
few  minutes  without  its  muscles  becoming  utterly 
exhausted.  There  is  no  reason  why  you  should 
expect  the  muscles  of  your  eyes  to  be  tireless. 

It  is  very  important,  too,  that  the  eye  should 
not  be  subjected  to  undue  strain  through  reading 
a  badly-lighted  page.  The  light,  on  the  other 
hand,  should  not  be  too  intense.  It  should  pref- 
erably come  from  behind  the  head  or  from  the 


Can  You  See  Straight?  171 

side,  so  that  the  rays  are  not  directly  reflected  into 
the  eye  from  a  brilliant  electric  light  or  Wels- 
bach  burner,  but  come  rather  in  diffused  rays. 

In  reading  at  night  it  is  desirable  to  have  the 
room  in  general  fairly  dark,  so  that  the  iris  may 
be  well  dilated.  The  reading  light  need  not  then 
be  too  intense,  if  placed  near  the  page  it  illumi- 
nates. 

Under  these  conditions  it  is  possible  to  read  for 
hours  with  less  strain  on  the  eyes  than  would  re- 
sult from  a  few  minutes  of  reading  with  a  light 
that  is  badly  placed  or  with  one  that  is  either  too 
brilliant  or  too  dull. 

Should  the  eyes  show  a  tendency  to  irritation  or 
inflammation,  the  use  of  a  saturated  solution  of 
boric  acid,  applied  with  the  ordinary  eye-cup,  will 
almost  always  be  of  service;  but  such  a  tentative 
measure  should  not  of  course  take  the  place  of  a 
radical  correction  of  any  error  of  refraction  by 
the  use  of  proper  glasses. 

Occupation  and  Eye-Strain 

Of  course,  the  character  of  your  occupation  may 
make  it  almost  impossible  for  you  to  avoid  over- 
use or  abnormal  use  of  your  eyes. 

Dr.  George  M.  Gould,  whose  life-long  exposition 
of  the  evils  that  result  from  eye-strain  is  well 
known,  gave  a  list  of  occupations  with  reference 
to  their  average  effect  on  the  eyes  in  a  paper  be- 
fore the  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  at 
Washington.  He  divided  the  occupations  into  five 


173  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

large  groups,  aggregating  114  individual  call- 
ings. 

The  first  group  comprised  largely  persons  lead- 
ing outdoor  lives,  from  hunters  and  trappers,  lum- 
bermen, seamen,  farmers,  and  common  laborers  to 
gardeners,  hod-carriers,  quarrymen,  and  locomo- 
tive engineers.  Only  from  one  to  twenty  per  cent 
of  the  persons  in  these  occupations,  according  to 
his  estimate,  have  diseases  due  to  eye-strain. 

The  second  group,  including  railway  conductors, 
outside  painters,  carpenters,  merchants  and  sales- 
men among  others,  shows  twenty  to  forty  per  cent 
of  cases  with  eye-strain  diseases. 

In  successive  groups,  the  percentage  rises,  al- 
ways with  the  inclusion  of  occupations  requiring 
more  and  more  constant  use  of  the  eyes,  particu- 
larly for  nearby  work,  until  in  the  fifth  group,  be- 
ginning with  students  in  seminaries  and  colleges 
and  with  clergymen,  lawyers,  and  bank  clerks,  and 
ending  with  type-setters,  type-cutters,  miniature 
painters,  photograph  retouchers,  and  etchers,  the 
ratio  of  defects  is  given  as  from  eighty  to  one 
hundred  per  cent. 

In  other  words,  persons  whose  occupation  re- 
quires almost  incessant  focusing  of  the  eyes  on 
nearby  objects,  and  particularly  small  objects,  de- 
velop abnormalities  of  vision  almost  as  a  matter  of 
course. 

Moreover,  the  results  of  eye-strain  thus  intro- 
duced are  not  at  all  confined  to  abnormalities  of 
the  eyes  themselves.  Dr.  Gould  believes  that  con- 
stant straining  of  the  eyes,  particularly  without 


Can  You  See  Straight?  173 

properly  adjusted  spectacles,  is  the  main  cause  of 
the  observed  fact  that  telephone  girls  suffer  from 
a  great  variety  of  illnesses  and  usually  break  down 
altogether  after  two  or  three  years  of  service. 

The  report  of  a  Royal  Commissioner  of  Canada 
as  to  the  maladies  resulting  from  telephone  oper- 
ating gives  a  list  of  defects  that  covers  almost  a 
page  of  fine  print.  "  Nervous  debility,  wearing 
down  of  the  nervous  system,"  "  headache  from 
looking  at  the  holes,"  "  inability  to  sleep," 
"  fainting,"  and  "  nervous  prostration  and  nerv- 
ous breakdown  ' '  are  among  the  conditions  listed ; 
and  it  is  declared  that  "  after  five  years  the  girl 
will  be  disqualified  to  become  a  wife  and  mother  ' ' ; 
and  the  prediction  is  made  that  "  on  future  gen- 
erations the  effect  will  be  epilepsy  and  all  sorts 
of  nervous  diseases." 

In  Dr.  Gould's  view  these  untoward  results,  and 
similar  ones  reported  elsewhere,  are  very  largely 
due  to  a  single  cause. 

"  The  disorders  most  frequently  mentioned," 
he  says,  "  and  most  emphasized  among  the  tele- 
phonists are  nervous  affections,  digestive  disor- 
ders, anemia,  nervousness,  neurasthenia,  nervous 
debility,  migrain,  headaches,  vertigo,  palpitation, 
and  so  on,  precisely  those  I  have  found  in  thou- 
sands of  cases  and  for  twenty  or  more  years  have 
demonstrated  to  be  due  to  eye-strain." 

Not  all  authorities  are  prepared  to  go  quite  as 
far  as  does  Dr.  Gould  in  ascribing  the  observed 
maladies  exclusively  to  eye-strain,  but  no  one  com- 
petent to  judge  will  doubt  that  eye-strain  is  at 


174  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

least  an  important  contributory  factor  in  a  very 
large  proportion  of  cases.  Nor  can  it  be  ques- 
tioned that  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  important, 
not  merely  for  telephone  operators  but  for  the  fol- 
lowers of  every  line  of  work  that  requires  constant 
exacting  use  of  the  eyes,  that  their  eyes  be  care- 
fully tested  and  any  errors  of  refraction  fully 
compensated  with  proper  glasses. 

Guarding  the  Child's  Eyes 

But  the  most  important  thing  of  all,  of  course, 
is  to  safeguard  the  eyes  of  children. 

To  begin  at  the  beginning  you  should  under- 
stand that  abnormal  conditions  of  the  eye  are 
peculiarly  likely  to  be  inherited.  The  very  com- 
mon condition  that  leads  to  shortsightedness  is 
partially  due  to  a  thinness  or  a  lack  of  toughness 
of  fibre  of  the  structure  of  the  eyeball  itself.  The 
muscles  tugging  constantly  at  the  eyeball,  par- 
ticularly in  focusing  on  nearby  objects,  exert  such 
a  constricting  force  as  gradually  to  lengthen  the 
eyeball,  making  it  more  or  less  egg-shaped;  the 
result  being  that  the  rays  of  light  are  focused  in 
front  of  the  retina.  Thus  it  becomes  necessary 
to  bring  objects  very  near  to  the  eye  in  order  to 
see  them  clearly,  and  the  straining  incident  to  fo- 
cusing at  close  range  aggravates  the  difficulty,  so 
that  shortsightedness  is  likely  to  be  progressive. 

The  condition  of  the  eyeball  that  leads  to  this 
result  is  likely  to  be  transmitted  to  the  offspring. 

So  if  either  parent  of  a  child  is  nearsighted,  the 


Can  You  See  Straight?  175 

eyes  of  the  child  should  be  given  careful  attention. 
The  condition  of  nearsightedness  will  probably 
not  develop  until  the  child  is  six  or  eight  years  old ; 
but  the  probabilities  of  its  development  should  be 
borne  in  mind  from  infancy,  and  efforts  made  to 
obviate  this  unfortunate  result. 

To  that  end,  the  child  should  be  given  large  ob- 
jects to  play  with,  even  in  the  nursery.  It  should 
have  its  letters  taught  by  forming  them  with 
blocks  of  wood,  rather  than  by  the  use  of  a  book. 
Even  the  scanning  of  picture  books  should  be  dis- 
couraged, and  in  general  the  child  should  be  pre- 
vented from  scrutinizing  habitually  small  objects 
or  nearby  objects  of  any  kind.  It  should  not  be 
permitted,  for  example,  to  draw  pictures,  to  sew, 
or  to  thread  beads,  or  to  engage  in  any  other  occu- 
pation or  diversion  that  necessitates  near  vision. 

Dr.  Ernest  Clark,  the  London  specialist,  urges 
that  no  child  having  the  hereditary  tendency  to 
shortsightedness  should  be  allowed  to  learn  to 
write  or  draw  until  it  is  at  least  seven  years  old. 

Dr.  Gould,  in  the  paper  already  quoted,  declares 
that  shortsightedness  is  a  malady  that  is  almost 
tragical  in  its  importance  to  thousands  of  its  vic- 
tims. Where  the  defect  of  aberration  is  pro- 
nounced, he  says,  any  swift,  safe,  or  accurate  sport 
or  bodily  activity,  except  swimming,  is  impos- 
sible. The  shortsighted  person  never  dares  to 
run,  and  all  motions  must  be  slow,  indefinite,  and 
cautious. 

Yet  all  this,  Dr.  Gould  emphatically  declares 
is  needless.  "  The  origin  of  the  condition  of  the 


176  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

eye  that  causes  shortsightedness  is  known  and 
its  preventableness  certain.  It  is  called  simply 
and  solely  by  uncorrected,  by  overcorrected,  or 
by  miscorrected  hyperopic  astigmatism," — that 
is  to  say,  an  eyeball  that  in  the  beginning  is 
slightly  too  short  and  asymmetrical  and  which 
therefore  has  an  error  of  refraction  that  the  eye 
strains  constantly  to  correct. 

And  Dr.  Gould  adds :  ' '  There  need  not  be  a 
single  shortsighted  individual  in  the  civilized 
world  and  there  will  not  be  one  when  the  world 
becomes  genuinely  civilized." 

Small  Defects  Are  Most  Dangerous 

After  citing  such  testimony,  it  is  almost  super- 
fluous to  add  that,  regardless  of  hereditary  tenden- 
cies, you  should  make  the  most  painstaking  effort 
to  ascertain  whether  your  child  has  any  error  of 
refraction. 

Above  all  it  is  important  to  realize  that  even 
slight  errors,  necessitating  a  constant  eye-strain, 
may  lead  to  most  disastrous  results.  Indeed,  it 
is  the  rather  paradoxical  fact  that  small  errors  of 
refraction  are  the  ones  most  likely  to  cause  eye- 
strain  with  its  attendant  evils.  If  the  refractive 
error  is  large  the  eye  does  not  try  to  overcome  it, 
but  if  it  is  slight  there  is  constant  straining, 
usually  unknown  to  the  child  himself,  and  the  wear 
and  tear  not  only  on  the  eye  itself,  but  on  the 
brain  centres  is  almost  sure  to  produce  permanent 
injury.  This  may  take  the  form  of  inflammation 


Can  You  See  Straight?  177 

of  the  eyes,  leading  perhaps  to  granular  lids  or 
even  to  incurable  maladies  of  the  interior  of  the 
eye,  such  as  inflammation  of  the  iris,  increase  of 
the  fluid  contents  of  the  eyeball,  or  the  condition 
called  cataract. 

In  other  cases  the  symptoms  may  not  focalize  on 
the  eye,  but  there  may  be  severe  neuralgia,  con- 
vulsive movements  of  the  facial  muscles,  attacks 
of  dizziness  and  nausea,  or  even  the  convulsive 
seizures  of  epilepsy,  without  the  real  cause  being 
suspected.  Short  of  such  tangible  manifestations 
of  nerve  exhaustion,  there  may  be  a  steady  nerve 
waste  that  leads  to  perpetual  brain  fatigue  with 
attendant  irritability,  lack  of  power  of  concentra- 
tion, failure  of  memory,  and  insomnia  leading  to 
depression  and  even  to  mental  overthrow. 

Says  Dr.  Clark:  "  Insomnia  is  a  prominent 
symptom  of  eye-strain;  this  leads  to  depression 
which  in  turn  may  lead  to  the  alcohol  or  morphine 
habit.  There  is  no  form  of  functional  nerve  dis- 
order that  may  not  be  caused,  or  aggravated  by 
eye-strain. ' ' 

Dr.  Gould  goes  farther.  Not  limiting  the  view 
to  functional  disorders,  he  names  curvature  of 
the  spine  among  common  conditions  due  to  eye- 
strain,  the  bodily  distortion  resulting,  he  says, 
' '  from  the  effort  to  focus  defective  eyes  on  books 
at  school  and  the  home  under  improper  conditions 
as  to  desks  and  light." 

11  As  to  the  millions  of  common  school  chil- 
dren," he  says,  "  their  ocular  ills,  their  eye-strain, 
and  its  effect  upon  general  health,  their  standing 


178  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

in  classes,  the  reasons  for  the  dullards  and  tru- 
ants, and  even  juvenile  criminals — of  all  this  big 
book  of  human  ills  and  wrong,  we  are  now  at  the 
opening  page."  And  he  adds:  "  Not  one  good 
school  desk  exists  in  the  United  States,  and  every 
child  writes  with  body  and  head  and  eyes  in  dis- 
ease-producing postures." 

"  Not  one  good  school  desk  in  the  United 
States !  ' '  Yet  fifteen  or  twenty  million  children 
are  forced  to  sit  at  school  desks  * '  in  disease-pro- 
ducing postures."  A  dreadful  indictment  of  our 
educational  system.  Possibly  it  overstates  the 
facts ;  but  it  is  too  near  the  truth  to  make  pleasant 
reading. 

The  Home  Influence  All  Important 

In  a  word,  then,  it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate 
the  dangers  that  attend  the  eye-strain  that  may 
be  due  to  a  very  slight  error  of  refraction. 

And  the  danger  is  peculiarly  subtle  because  the 
child  is  quite  unaware  of  the  difficulty.  It  may 
even  happen  that  astigmatism  due  to  asymmetry 
of  the  cornea  is  corrected  by  such  action  of  the 
ciliary  muscle  as  will  change  the  shape  of  the 
crystalline  lens  in  a  way  to  correct  the  distortion 
of  the  image  and  thereby  give  perfectly  good 
vision. 

But  the  correction  is  made  at  the  expense  of 
incessant  eye-strain,  which  cannot  fail  to  make  its 
effects  manifest  sooner  or  later.  In  such  a  case 
it  is  impossible  to  detect  the  abnormality  unless 
the  ciliary  muscles  are  paralyzed  momentarily 


Can  You  See  Straight?  179 

by  a  drug  like  atropin.  But  the  interests  of  the 
child  demand  that  the  error  should  be  detected 
and  corrected  by  the  proper  glasses. 

In  case  the  eye  suffers  from  astigmatism,  and 
in  those  other  cases  in  which  the  two  eyes  have 
different  errors  of  accommodation,  it  is  peculiarly 
necessary  that  there  should  be  complete  correc- 
tion of  the  errors,  and  that  the  correcting  glasses 
should  be  worn  at  all  times.  It  is  possible  thus  to 
give  normal  vision  and  to  remove  eye-strain, 
obviating  the  danger  of  incurable  eye  maladies 
or  permanent  perversions  of  the  nervous  system. 

But  it  is  best  of  all  to  train  the  child  from 
infancy  to  use  the  eyes  in  such  a  way  as  to  pre- 
serve them  in  a  normal  condition,  and  thus  to 
spare  him  the  inconvenience  of  the  lifelong  wear- 
ing of  glasses. 

Wise  parents  are  now  giving  heed  to  this  mat- 
ter of  eye-strain  even  in  the  nursery ;  and  teachers 
in  the  schools  are  coming  to  understand  more 
clearly  the  need  of  proper  lighting  and  the  vital 
importance  of  using  only  such  text-books  as  have 
large,  clear  type.  The  light  of  the  schoolroom 
should  come  from  the  side,  preferably  the  left. 
Desks  should  be  so  arranged  that  pupils  can  sit 
upright  at  their  work,  and  particular  effort  should 
be  made  to  see  that  they  do  not  hold  their  books 
too  near  the  eyes. 

Let  Dr.  Gould's  charge  about  the  bad  desks  be 
remembered,  and  his  warning  heeded.  Any  child 
that  tends  constantly  to  scrutinize  its  work  with 
eyes  close  to  the  page  should  at  once  have  its  eyes 


i8o  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

examined,  that  its  incipient  shortsightedness  may 
be  corrected. 

But  for  that  matter  every  child  should  have  its 
eyes  examined  by  a  competent  occulist  from  time 
to  time,  just  as  it  should  have  its  teeth  examined 
by  a  dentist.  Indeed,  of  the  two  preventive  meas- 
ures, the  former  is  by  far  the  more  important.  If 
you  fail  to  take  this  simple  measure  to  safeguard 
the  eyes  of  your  children,  you  are  guilty  of  inex- 
cusable negligence,  and  the  child,  later  in  life, 
will  quite  properly  resent  your  oversight. 


vn 

Do  You  Choose  Your  Children? 

TTAVE  I  the  right  to  get  married?  If  already 
**-  married,  have  I  the  right  to  have  chil- 
dren? If  I  have  children,  will  they  be  healthy  in 
mind  and  body,  or  will  they  be  feeble-minded,  or 
consumptive,  or  epileptic,  or  so  sickly  and  defec- 
tive that  they  will  be  a  burden  to  themselves  and 
to  their  parents? 

The  time  is  coming  when  every  intelligent  man 
and  woman  must  ask  himself  or  herself  such 
questions  as  these, — direct,  personal,  practical 
questions.  The  new  knowledge  of  heredity  makes 
it  imperative  to  do  so.  The  long  controversy 
about  the  relative  influence  of  heredity  and  en- 
vironment has  been  settled  for  all  time.  We  know 
now  that  the  possibilities  of  any  individual  are 
predetermined  before  birth.  When  you  select  a 
marriage  partner,  you  are  predetermining  the 
character  of  your  offspring  almost  as  clearly  and 
as  definitely  as  an  architect  is  predetermining  the 
character  of  a  building  when  he  selects  steel  or 
wood  or  stone  or  brick  or  concrete  as  building 
material. 

If  your  child  has  a  wrong  heredity,  you  can  no 
more  make  him  a  normal  and  healthy  and  clear- 
minded  individual  than  you  can  make  a  mar- 

181 


1 82  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

ble  palace  out  of  bricks  or  a  brick  house  out  of 
wood. 

Environment  and  education  can  do  something, 
but  at  best  they  can  only  supply  a  veneer.  The 
essential  constitution  and  mind  of  the  individual 
are  born  and  not  made.  Such  is  the  clear,  em- 
phatic, and  thought-provocative  teaching  of  the 
new  heredity. 

You,  perhaps,  are  inclined  to  doubt  this.  You 
have  seen  bright,  healthy,  robust  children  in 
families  where  the  parents  were  sickly  or  unin- 
telligent or  depraved.  You  have  also  seen  defec- 
tive children  whose  parents  were  robust  and 
intelligent.  Such  observations  seem  to  deny  the 
influence  of  heredity.  But  the  new  studies  explain 
these  anomalies ;  explain  them  not  by  the  citation 
of  theories  merely,  but  by  the  piling  up  of  illus- 
trative cases,  by  the  massing  of  evidence  that  no 
one  can  ignore.  If  you  are  to  select  a  marriage 
partner  wisely,  and  to  give  your  prospective  chil- 
dren half  a  chance  in  life,  you  must  be  familiar 
with  at  least  the  essentials  of  this  new  and  im- 
portant knowledge. 

At  the  very  beginning  it  must  be  understood 
that  we  do  not  inherit  our  traits  exclusively  from 
our  parents.  We  inherit  them  from  grandparents 
and  great-grandparents  as  well. 

Indeed,  traits  of  a  perfectly  definite  character 
— our  stature,  the  color  of  our  eyes  or  hair,  our 
mental  abilities — may  come  by  direct  inheritance 
from  even  more  remote  ancestors  after  skipping 
two  or  three  generations.  The  present  writer, 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  183 

for  example,  has  an  extra  tooth,  an  extremely 
rare  phenomenon.  One  of  my  cousins  also  has 
an  extra  tooth.  No  one  of  our  parents  or  grand- 
parents had  teeth  different  from  the  normal ;  but 
investigation  has  revealed  the  fact  that  one  of  our 
great-grandparents  had  an  extra  tooth.  This  pe- 
culiarity, then,  is  a  family  trait  which,  could  we 
trace  it,  would  doubtless  be  found  reappearing 
here  and  there  throughout  the  whole  line  of 
ancestry. 

What  is  true  of  this  tangible  but  unimportant 
characteristic  is  equally  true  of  every  other 
physical  and  mental  trait,  from  the  most  obscure 
and  incidental  to  the  most  prominent  and 
essential. 

It  may  fairly  be  assumed  that  no  individual 
has  any  trait  of  body  or  mind  that  was  not  clearly 
and  definitely  present  in  one  or  another  of  his 
ancestors.  Your  child  has  certain  traits  and 
capacities  that  no  ancestors  of  yours  have  had,  to 
be  sure ;  but  you  must  recall  that  your  child  has 
two  parents  and  that  both  ancestral  lines  affect  it 
equally.  Your  child  has  twice  as  many  ancestors 
as  you  have. 

In  other  words,  your  marriage  partner  brings  an 
endowment  of  characteristics,  good  or  bad,  that  are 
weighed  against  the  characteristics  of  your  ances- 
try in  determining  the  personality  of  your  child. 

And  that  is  why  the  selection  of  a  marriage 
partner  is  far  and  away  the  most  momentous 
task  that  you  can  by  any  possibility  be  called 
upon  to  perform. 


1 84  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

The  New  Knowledge  of  Heredity 

It  is  no  new  thing,  of  course,  to  say  that  the 
personality  of  any  individual  represents  more  or 
less  clearly  the  sum  of  the  personalities  of  all  of 
his  ancestors.  But  the  new  studies  of  heredity 
show  that  the  diverse  characteristics  of  the  many 
ancestors  are  not  blended  in  the  way  they  were 
formerly  supposed  to  be  blended. 

Each  individual  is  now  thought  of  not  so  much 
as  representing  a  blend  of  traits  as  a  mosaic.  The 
new  studies  show  that  there  are  many  character- 
istics of  both  body  and  mind  that  do  not  tend  to 
become  modified  through  blending,  but  which 
may  seem  altogether  to  disappear  in  a  given  gen- 
eration, or  even  for  successive  generations,  and 
yet  reappear  with  full  force  in  a  remote  de- 
scendant. 

This  means  that  each  individual  bears  within 
his  system  and  may  transmit  to  his  descendants  a 
multitude  of  characteristics  that  he  gives  no  evi- 
dence of  having  and  of  which  he  is  quite  uncon- 
scious. Just  what  these  latent  characteristics  are 
can  be  known  only  through  study  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  our  forebears. 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  reflect  what  a  complex 
structure  the  so-called  ancestral  tree  really  is! 

A  moment  thought's  will  make  it  clear  that 
every  individual  has  an  ancestry  that  doubles 
with  each  generation  as  we  go  back.  Most  of  us 
know  the  names  of  our  grandparents;  but  few  of 
us  can  name  offhand  all  eight  of  our  great-grand- 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  185 

parents,  to  say  nothing  of  the  sixteen  members  of 
the  preceding  generation,  or  their  thirty-two 
parents.  The  great-grandparents  of  your  great- 
grandparents  were  sixty-four  in  number.  They 
lived  at  about  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  so  that  does  not  carry  us  very  far  back. 
Yet  I  venture  to  say  there  is  not  a  man  in  America 
who  can  name  or  trace  all  the  members  of  his 
ancestry  of  that  generation.  It  would  be  well  for 
us  all,  in  the  light  of  the  teaching  of  modern 
heredity,  if  we  could. 

Every  one  of  us  has  (or  would  have  were  it  not 
for  inter-breeding)  1,024  ancestors  of  the  tenth 
generation;  and  that  carries  us  only  to  the  time 
of  the  Pilgrim  fathers.  Who  pretends  to  know 
anything  whatever  about  one  in  a  hundred  of 
these  f 

Not  even  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe — 
neither  Kaiser  Wilhelm,  King  George,  nor  Al- 
phonso — could  name,  with  the  aid  of  all  existing 
records,  the  full  list  of  their  ancestors  of  that 
tenth  generation — only  three  hundred  years  ago. 

Yet  each  one  of  the  thousand  had  individual 
traits  that  are  present,  patent  or  latent,  in  the 
germ-plasm  of  his  descendant  of  to-day.  As  a 
single  illustration,  note  the  Hapsburg  lip,  which 
Alphonso  has  inherited  from  a  known  ancestress 
(Cymburga)  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

In  a  word,  then,  each  of  us  is  the  bearer  of  a 
message  from  our  ancestry  to  our  posterity. 

You  stand  at  the  meeting  point  between  galaxies 
of  ancestors  and  other  galaxies  of  prospective 


i86  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

progeny.  In  your  system  lies  the  bit  of  germ- 
plasm  that — miracle  of  miracles! — conveys  the 
potentialities  of  good  and  evil  of  all  the  past — 
the  epitome  of  the  racial  history  of  all  your 
myriads  of  ancestors. 

Nothing  that  you  can  do  will  change  the  char- 
acter of  that  germ-plasm.  Its  potentialities  are 
fixed  irrevocably.  In  a  sense  it  is  not  a  part  of 
you;  it  is  a  heritage  placed  temporarily  in  your 
stewardship. 

But  it  is  open  to  you  to  decide  whether  you  will 
be  a  true  or  a  false  steward.  You  may  determine 
whether  the  progeny  flowing  from  that  germ- 
plasm  shall  be  worthy  of  its  best  possibilities,  or 
whether  they  shall  exemplify  its  worst  possibili- 
ties. And  the  whole  momentous  question  hinges 
on  a  single  decision — your  choice  of  a  marriage 
partner. 

All  the  evolution  of  the  past  has  been  deter- 
mined by  mating  selections ;  all  the  progress  of  the 
future  will  be  conditioned  on  mating  selections. 

Viewed  in  this  light,  it  might  almost  be  said  that 
a  couple  going  to  the  altar  stand  before  a  court 
where  thousands  of  ancestral  ghosts  sit  in  judg- 
ment, ready  to  chorus  approval  or  to  forbid  the 
unworthy  banns.  It  would  be  well  for  the  world 
if  our  dull  human  ears  could  hear  the  verdict — 
for  none  but  the  most  foolhardy  would  dare  to 
ignore  it. 

It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  invoke  the  gal- 
axies of  past  or  future  to  show  the  all-importance 
of  the  marriage  selection.  It  is  quite  enough  to 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  187 

appeal  to  your  own  personal  and  selfish  interests. 
However  slight  your  interest  in  the  welfare  of  re- 
mote posterity,  you  at  least  are  concerned  about 
the  welfare  of  your  children,  and  that  is  the  topic 
at  present  in  hand. 


The  Conflict  of  Tendencies 

The  central  fact  to  get  clearly  in  mind  is  that 
in  your  germ-plasm  are  mingled  the  relics,  so  to 
speak,  of  very  diversified  ancestors.  It  is  obvious 
that  many  of  these  traits  are  antagonistic  or 
mutually  exclusive.  For  example,  you  cannot  be 
both  tall  and  short.  You  cannot  have  both  dark 
hair  and  light  hair ;  or  black  eyes  and  blue  eyes. 
You  cannot  be  strong  and  weak;  healthy  and  un- 
healthy; sane  and  insane.  Yet  your  two  parents 
may  represent  these  and  a  multitude  of  other 
divergent  traits. 

Take,  for  example,  the  simple  case  of  two 
parents  one  of  whom  has  black  eyes  (of  a  pure 
strain)  and  the  other  blue  eyes.  It  is  matter  of 
observation  that  in  such  a  case  the  children  all 
have  dark  eyes.  But  it  is  further  to  be  noted  that 
these  dark-eyed  offspring,  mated  with  other  per- 
sons of  similar  heritage,  have  a  certain  proportion 
of  children  with  blue  eyes. 

Thus  the  tendency  to  blue  eyes,  although  sub- 
ordinated and  as  it  were  overriden  in  one  genera- 
tion, reappears  in  the  succeeding  generation. 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  same  thing  is 
obtained  when  a  black  guinea-pig  is  mated  with  a 


1 88  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

white  guinea-pig,  as  in  Professor  William  E. 
Castle's  experiments.  All  the  offspring  are  black. 
Yet  these  black  offspring  when  interbred  produce 
a  certain  number  of  white  guinea-pigs, — one  in 
four,  to  be  explicit.  It  is  obvious,  then,  that  the 
black  guinea-pigs  of  the  second  generation  have 
latent  in  their  systems  the  tendency  to  whiteness. 
The  tendency  to  blackness  prevailed  so  far  as 
the  individual  was  concerned;  but  the  opposing 
tendency  was  only  temporarily  subordinated. 

A  multitude  of  observations  have  shown  that 
the  great  variety  of  traits  that  go  to  make  up  the 
physical  and  mental  characteristics  of  human  be- 
ings are  weighed  against  each  other  and  trans- 
mitted as  patent  or  as  latent  characteristics. 

It  is  obviously  important  to  ascertain,  particu- 
larly as  regards  diseased  conditions,  which  traits 
tend  to  be  directly  transmitted  from  parent  to 
offspring,  and  which  ones  tend  to  disappear  in 
a  generation  and  reappear  in  a  later  generation. 
Enough  facts  as  to  this  all-important  matter  have 
been  collected  in  very  recent  years  to  afford  a 
basis  for  the  scientific  selection  of  marriage 
partners. 

We  now  know  that  in  many  cases  seemingly 
normal  individuals  could  not  be  mated  without 
entailing  the  gravest  danger  upon  their  progeny. 


Ancestors  and  Marriage  Partners 

Let  us  make  the  illustration  concrete.    You  are, 
let  us  say,  a  young  man  of  seemingly  good  health, 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  189 

and  entirely  normal  in  mind  and  body.  You  have 
fallen  in  love  with  a  young  woman  also  sound  and 
healthy.  Both  of  you  could  pass  the  most  rigid 
life  insurance  examination.  Seemingly  you  are 
well  suited  for  each  other. 

It  is  true  that  one  of  your  great-grandparents 
was  mentally  unbalanced,  but  there  is  nothing 
very  startling  in  that,  for  investigation  shows  that 
there  are  strains  of  insanity  in  about  one-third 
of  all  families.  Your  parents  and  your  four 
grandparents  were  of  normal  mentality.  So  why 
give  the  matter  a  thought?  In  point  of  fact,  you 
need  not,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  one  of  your 
fiancee's  grandparents  was  subject  to  epileptic 
seizures.  But  if  you  are  wise  that  fact  will  make 
you  pause.  Insanity  and  epilepsy  are  not  the 
same  thing,  to  be  sure ;  but  they  are  allied  neuroses 
which  operate  in  the  same  way  in  the  scheme  of 
heredity. 

It  is  more  than  likely,  then,  that  the  two  neurotic 
taints  if  brought  together  will  act  like  fire  and 
tinder;  and  your  offspring  will  be  neuropathic, — 
feeble-minded  or  epileptic  or  sexually  perverted 
or  destined  to  become  insane. 

So  your  contemplated  marriage  involves  mat- 
ters far  more  profound  than  the  mere  question 
of  your  individual  happiness  of  the  moment.  It 
involves  the  weal  or  woe  of  those  years  of  the 
future  when  your  children  will  be  to  you  either 
the  supreme  blessing  or  a  source  of  the  profound- 
est  remorse  and  sorrow.  Dare  you  take  the 
hazard? 


igo  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Before  you  answer,  look  about  you,  and  con- 
sider the  families  of  your  neighbors.  More  than 
likely  some  of  them  include  children  that  are  con- 
genitally  crippled  or  scrofulous  or  "  backward  " 
or  vicious  and  depraved.  You  have  supposed  that 
this  was  an  unavoidable  misfortune;  an  inex- 
plicable "  interposition  of  Providence."  You  are 
wrong.  The  seeming  misfortune  that  is  bringing 
the  head  of  your  neighbor  in  sorrow  to  the  grave 
was  really  of  his  own  choosing.  He  predeter- 
mined that  his  child  should  be  neuropathic  or 
epileptic  or  deformed  or  congenitally  blind  or  deaf 
or  morally  depraved  when  he  selected  the  mother 
of  that  child.  He  made  the  choice  unwittingly 
of  course.  But  nature  makes  no  allowance  for 
ignorance. 

You  will  invite  the  same  disaster  if  you  act 
with  like  lack  of  foresight. 

There  are  estimated  to  be  four  million  children 
in  the  United  States  that  are  classified  as 
" exceptional.'*  The  Binet  tests  show  that  in 
some  of  our  schools  30  per  cent  of  the  children 
are  below  the  normal  standards  of  mental  develop- 
ment. Do  you  wish  to  be  responsible  for  children 
that  will  add  to  this  class? 

There  are  estimated  to  be  200,000  individuals 
in  the  United  States  that  rank  as  imbeciles.  And 
with  the  rarest  exception  the  cause  of  imbecility 
is  heredity — and  heredity  alone.  The  parents  of 
an  imbecile  may  be  mentally  sound  and  normal; 
but  they  carry  inherited  defects  in  their  germ- 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  191 

plasm  or  their  child  would  not  be  congenitally 
defective. 

And  this,  be  it  understood,  applies  to  moral 
defects  no  less  than  to  mental.  Hereditary  in- 
stability of  the  nervous  mechanism — weakness  of 
brain  and  mind — may  reveal  itself  differently  in 
various  members  of  the  same  fraternity — in  one 
case  as  feeble-mindedness,  in  another  case  as 
criminality,  and  in  yet  others  as  epilepsy  or  as 
insanity  or  drunkenness  or  debauchery. 

Such  details  of  difference  as  these  imply  are 
often  determined  by  the  environment;  but  the 
deep-seated  nervous  defect  that  underlies  them 
all  is  a  matter  of  inheritance. 


Your  Family  Tree 

All  this,  you  admit,  is  very  harrowing ;  but  you 
thank  your  lucky  stars  that  your  family  is  free 
from  any  such  taint. 

Do  not  be  too  sure  of  that.  Do  you  know  the 
names,  let  alone  the  antecedents,  of  your  eight 
great-grandparents?  Are  you  quite  sure  that  no 
one  of  them  was  consumptive,  or  addicted  to  al- 
cohol, or  the  victim  of  venereal  diseases?  One- 
tenth  of  all  deaths  are  due  to  consumption.  So  it 
is  more  than  an  even  chance  that  your  forebears 
of  the  past  three  generations  included  at  least 
one  victim  of  this  disease. 

If  such  is  really  the  case,  there  is  a  strain  of  sus- 
ceptibility to  the  attacks  of  the  tubercle  bacillus 
in  your  system — bred  in  the  bone,  as  the  saying 


i§2  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

is — however  free  you  may  be  from  any  outward 
indication  of  the  fact.  And  the  one  sure  way  to 
bring  that  latent  tendency  to  the  surface,  is  to 
choose  a  mate  who  carries  the  same  latent  heredi- 
tary tendency. 

Look  about  you  and  see  how  many  of  your  ac- 
quaintance, themselves  healthy,  have  scrofulous 
or  nervous  or  ill-nourished,  pale,  sickly  children. 
Then  ask  yourself  whether  you  would  knowingly 
choose  such  progeny  for  your  own. 

The  choice  lies  with  you.  If  you  mate  with  a 
person  of  a  family  strain  not  susceptible  to  tuber- 
culosis, your  children  will  in  all  probability  be 
normal  in  this  regard.  Even  the  children  of  a 
consumptive  who  mates  with  a  normal  person 
may  be  normally  resistant.  But  to  unite  two 
tainted  strains,  even  when  the  individuals  them- 
selves are  normal,  is  to  challenge  fate;  in  effect, 
to  invoke  a  curse  on  your  own  progeny.  "  It  is 
highly  undesirable,"  says  Professor  C.  B.  Daven- 
port, "  that  two  persons  of  weak  resistance  (to 
tuberculosis)  should  marry,  lest  their  children  all 
carry  the  weakness." 

If  that  simple  rule  could  be  known  to  people  in 
general,  and  if  they  could  be  prevailed  upon  to 
act  on  it,  how  rapidly  would  the  fight  against  the 
great  white  plague  be  carried  to  a  successful 
issue. 

Unfortunately  the  time  has  not  yet  come  when 
we  can  hope  that  the  average  young  man  and 
woman  will  consider  such  teaching  as  this  against 
their  own  individual  fancies  of  the  moment.  But 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  193 

you  and  I,  being  rational  persons  and  able  to 
match  future  happiness  against  momentary  pleas- 
ure, may  ponder  this  teaching  of  the  new  heredity 
to  our  own  benefit  and  that  of  our  prospective 
children. 

Some  Thought-Compelling  Cases 

And  all  this,  be  it  understood,  is  no  mere  theoriz- 
ing. It  expresses  probabilities  based  on  the  study 
of  actual  pedigrees.  Other  pedigrees  that  have 
been  studied  include  a  wide  variety  of  diseased 
conditions. 

Here,  for  example,  is  a  case  in  which  a  healthy, 
normal  man  and  woman  marry,  without  so  much 
as  giving  a  thought  to  the  fact  that  the  father 
of  each  had  died  of  heart  disease.  But  was  it  an 
accident  that  of  the  four  children  born  to  this 
couple  two  had  heart  trouble,  and  one  died  of 
heart  disease  in  infancy? 

"  Heart  disease,"  says  Professor  Davenport, 
"  is  very  common,  but  it  does  not  fall  upon  indi- 
viduals at  random,  but  prevailingly  upon  strains 
with  an  inherent  liability  or  weakness.'* 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  other  anomalies  of 
the  circulatory  apparatus.  There  are,  for  ex- 
ample, families  of  "  bleeders,"  persons  whose 
blood  does  not  coagulate  normally,  so  that  even 
very  slight  wounds  expose  them  to  grave  danger 
from  hemorrhage.  This  disease  has  the  peculiar- 
ity that  it  usually  affects  only  the  males  of  the 
family,  yet  is  transmitted  only  by  the  females; 
that  is  to  say,  a  man  who  is  a  bleeder  will 


194  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

have  normal  children,  but  his  sister,  although  per- 
sonally normal,  will  have  sons  that  are  abnormal. 
Here  is  a  pedigree  in  which,  in  a  fraternity  of  five 
members,  the  three  men  are  all  bleeders.  The  two 
sisters  are  normal;  yet  when  married  to  normal 
men  these  women  have  respectively  four  and  five 
sons,  all  of  whom  are  bleeders. 

The  mothers  who  thus  transmitted  a  condition 
that  was  latent  in  their  own  systems  had  normal 
parents  and  grandparents ;  but  one  of  their  great- 
uncles  was  a  bleeder,  and  the  hereditary  character 
of  the  infirmity  is  further  attested  by  two  afflicted 
cousins  and  by  a  total  of  twenty-five  bleeders  in 
closely  collateral  lines  in  the  course  of  three 
generations. 

This  pedigree,  and  others  like  it,  justify  the 
conclusion  that  whereas  male  bleeders  may  marry 
with  relative  impunity,  their  sisters,  though  them- 
selves normal,  should  not  have  children.  The 
verdict  seems  harsh,  but  it  is  rational. 

A  similar  tendency  to  "  crossed-heredity  " — 
that  is,  transmission  from  mothers  to  sons,  or 
from  fathers  to  daughters — occurs  in  connection 
with  a  good  many  abnormalities  of  the  eye. 

Thus  color-blind  men  do  not  have  color-blind 
sons,  and  as  a  rule  their  daughters  are  also 
normal.  But  these  normal  daughters,  married  to 
men  of  normal  stock,  have  color-blind  sons. 

Similar  anomalies  of  inheritance  are  found  in 
cases  of  the  much  more  serious  eye  defect  called 
coloboma,  in  which  the  iris  fails  to  develop  nor- 
mally, and  in  the  condition  that  leads  to  total  blind- 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  195 

ness  through  atrophy  of  the  optic  nerve.  It  is 
declared  with  authority  that  ' '  no  female  with  the 
coloboma  defect  should  have  children,  since  all 
sons  will  be  defective  in  the  structure  of  the  pupil. 
For  males  with  the  defect  the  danger  in  marriage 
is  also  great,  for  either  all  or  half  of  the  sons  of 
such  a  father,  although  married  to  a  woman  from 
a  normal  strain,  will  be  defective,  but  the  daugh- 
ter will  not  be  defective  in  this  respect  unless  the 
wife  belongs  to  a  strain  with  this  defect." 

For  families  having  the  tendency  to  atrophy  of 
the  optic  nerve  the  rule  given  is  this :  ' l  A  normal 
son  of  an  abnormal  male  may  marry  quite  outside 
the  family  with  impunity,  but  a  normal  daughter 
may  transmit  the  defect  to  her  sons.  A  defective 
male  should  abstain  from  having  children,  for 
some  of  his  sons,  at  least,  will  probably  be  defec- 
tive." 

Even  the  most  heedless  person  can  scarcely  fail 
to  pay  attention  to  such  a  warning  as  that.  The 
possibility  of  producing  children  that  are  blind—- 
and doing  this  wilfully  in  defiance  of  the  teachings 
of  heredity — is  one  that  no  sane  person  could 
contemplate  with  equanimity. 

The  Marriage  of  Cousins 

Consider  now  a  pedigree  that  introduces  an- 
other complication.  A  young  man  falls  in  love 
with  his  cousin.  Both  are  normal;  so  are  their 
four  parents ;  and  they  ignore  the  fact  that  one  of 
their  common  grandparents  was  deaf.  The  two 


196  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

cousins  marry  and  have  four  children,  of  whom 
two  are  born  deaf. 

Here  the  hereditary  defect  has  skipped  two 
generations,  and  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that 
it  would  not  have  reappeared  but  for  the  union  of 
cousins.  The  justification  for  this  belief  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  deafness  may  be  due  to  a  good 
many  different  conditions,  so  the  marriage  of  un- 
related deaf  mutes  results  in  deafness  in  only 
about  one-fourth  of  the  offspring,  the  low  per- 
centage being  due,  Professor  Davenport  believes, 
to  the  fact  of  one  parent  bringing  into  the  com- 
bination what  the  other  parent  lacks,  thus  neutral- 
izing the  defect.  But  when  the  parents  are  re- 
lated— belonging  therefore  to  the  same  type  or 
strain  of  deafness — the  percentage  of  marriages 
yielding  deaf  children  increases  in  proportion  to 
the  closeness  of  relationship  of  the  parents. 

In  one  case  in  which  the  marriage  partners  were 
nephew  and  aunt,  75  per  cent  of  the  children  were 
deaf. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  from  this,  however, 
that  there  is  any  peculiar  association  between 
deaf-mutism  as  such  and  consanguineous  mar- 
riages. A  great  variety  of  defects  may  be  brought 
to  the  surface  in  the  same  way.  Thus  Dr.  Bemiss 
(cited  by  Davenport)  reported  833  consanguin- 
eous marriages  having  3,942  children,  of  whom 
about  one-fourth  died  young,  and  of  the  re- 
mainder more  than  1,100  were  "  defectives," 
including  deaf  mutes,  the  blind,  idiots,  insane, 
epileptics,  and  the  deformed  and  scrofulous. 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  197 

Dr.  Howe  reports  seventeen  consanguineous 
marriages  that  produced  50  per  cent  of  idiots. 

The  point  is  that  any  defects  in  the  germ-plasm 
tend  to  reveal  themselves  in  the  offspring  of 
cousin  marriages.  Here  is  a  family  in  which  there 
is  no  known  taint,  but  in  which  it  becomes  the 
fashion  for  cousins  to  marry.  In  the  first  genera- 
tion under  observation  healthy  cousins  marry,  and 
the  second  generation  shows  one  individual  in 
three  suffering  from  the  condition  of  muscular 
lack  of  tone  and  responsiveness  known  as 
Thomson's  disease.  Three  cousin  marriages 
occur  in  this  second  generation,  five  of  the  six 
partners  being  normal.  But  in  the  ensuing  gen- 
eration, of  eight  children  born  to  the  three  couples 
four  have  Thomsen's  disease,  two  have  nerve  and 
lung  trouble,  and  only  one  is  normal. 

Here  the  cousin  matings  brought  out  a  strain 
of  abnormality  that  had  so  completely  disap- 
peared that  its  existence  as  a  family  trait  had 
been  forgotten. 

Illustrations  of  the  evils  of  cousin  marriages 
may  be  found  on  a  large  scale  in  every  community 
where  physical  barriers  to  migration  or  social  re- 
strictions have  led  to  much  intermarrying.  In 
Martha's  Vineyard  close  inbreeding  has  led  to  the 
prevalence  of  deaf-mutism;  in  Point  Judith  to 
idiocy  and  insanity;  in  an  island  off  the  coast  of 
Maine  to  "  intellectual  dulness  ";  in  Block  Island 
to  loss  of  fecundity;  in  some  of  the  "  Banks  "  off 
the  coast  of  North  Carolina  to  suspiciousness  and 
mental  feebleness;  in  a  peninsula  on  the  east 


198  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

coast  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay  to  dwarfness;  in 
some  of  the  Bahamas  to  idiocy  and  blindness. 

"  Thus,"  says  Davenport,  who  reports  these 
instances,  "  there  is  no  one  taint  that  results 
from  the  marriage  of  kin ;  the  result  is  determined 
by  the  specific  defect  in  the  germ-plasm  of  the 
common  ancestor." 

It  follows  that  if  there  is  no  hereditary  weak- 
ness in  'your  family — no  taint  of  mental  or 
physical  disease — you  may  marry  your  cousin 
without  jeopardizing  the  interests  of  your  pros- 
pective offspring.  But  if  there  is  a  heritable  taint 
— and  very  few  families  are  altogether  free  from 
one  defect  or  another — you  magnify  the  defect  by 
the  union  of  two  strains  that  carry  it.  A  totally 
unrelated  person  may  have  the  same  defect;  but 
your  cousin  is  almost  sure  to  have  it,  because  you 
inherit  from  the  same  ancestor. 

So  the  marriage  of  cousins  should  never  be  con- 
summated without  very  careful  scrutiny  of  the 
common  pedigree. 

The  Individual  and  the  Race 

When  the  marriage  of  persons  related  in  some 
degree  of  cousinship  is  in  question,  it  is  well  to 
recall  that  the  entire  population  of  a  country  that 
has  been  long  inhabited  and  not  much  subject  to 
immigration,  comes  to  be  made  up  of  closely  inter- 
woven elements. 

To  see  how  inevitable  this  is,  we  have  only  to 
recall  that  the  descendants  of  a  single  individual, 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  199 

were  each  of  his  progeny  to  have  on  the  average 
five  children,  amount  to  more  than  eight  million, 
in  the  tenth  generation.  Ten  generations  span 
little  more  than  three  centuries ;  so  the  total  popu- 
lation of  America  to-day  might  be  accounted  for 
as  descended  from  a  dozen  couples  or  so  that  came 
over  in  the  Mayflower — provided  there  had  been 
no  intermarrying.  But  it  is  equally  obvious  that 
marriage  partners  could  not  have  been  found  for 
the  successive  generations  without  constant  inter- 
marrying. 

In  point  of  fact,  all  students  of  genealogy  know 
that  where  a  population  is  established  in  a  re- 
stricted territory  a  few  generations  suffice  to  make 
the  entire  community  related  within  recognized 
degrees  of  consanguinity.  In  such  communities, 
family  traits  and  any  heritable  weaknesses  be- 
come accentuated.  The  "  racial  characteristics  " 
of  New-Englanders,  for  example,  and  of  Virgin- 
ians, furnish  illustrations  in  point.  In  the  long 
run  the  laws  of  heredity  operate  to  bring  to  the 
surface  the  undesirable  latent  traits,  which,  when 
they  become  sufficiently  preponderant  in  the  com- 
munity, tell  of  racial  degeneration. 

Nothing  saves  a  closely  inbred  race  that  has 
reached  this  stage  except  the  infusion  of  good  new 
blood  from  outside. 

But  in  view  of  this  intermingling  of  descend- 
ants, in  virtue  of  which  everyone  in  a  given  region 
becomes  more  or  less  closely  related  to  everyone 
else,  how  does  anyone  escape  being  tainted  with 
a  variety  of  heritable  defects?  Until  very  re- 


200  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

cently  no  one  could  answer  that  question  in  any- 
thing but  the  vaguest  way,  but  the  new  studies 
of  heredity  have  supplied  a  perfectly  definite 
and  precise  answer,  the  gist  of  which  is  that  the 
same  traits  are  not  transmitted  to  all  the  offspring 
of  a  given  couple,  and  that  by  proper  selection 
even  the  worst  defect  may  be  bred  out  of  a  family. 


The  Same  Laws  for  Animal  and  Man 

To  make  the  matter  clear,  we  may  draw  an  illus- 
tration from  the  animal  world.  It  is  quite  valid  to 
do  so,  because  it  is  fully  conceded  that  the  same 
laws  of  heredity  apply  to  animals  and  to  men. 
Indeed,  the  knowledge  that  is  now  being  applied 
to  human  matings  was  first  gained  by  experiments 
with  plants  and  animals.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
the  new  methods  of  treating  human  diseases  were 
discovered  in  the  same  way. 

Let  us  take,  then,  the  case  of  the  guinea-pigs 
already  referred  to.  We  saw  that  if  a  black  and 
white  guinea-pig,  both  of  pure  strains,  were 
mated,  the  offspring  are  all  black.  We  saw  fur- 
ther that  if  a  pair  of  these  offspring  of  the  first 
filial  generation  are  interbred,  the  progeny  show 
three  black  individuals  and  one  white  in  each 
group  of  four.  It  remains  now  to  follow  up  the 
experiment. 

It  appears,  then,  that  if  the  white  members  of 
the  fraternity  are  interbred,  they  will  produce 
only  white  offspring.  They  are  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  of  a  pure  white  breed.  Notwithstand- 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  201 

ing  the  fact  that  both  their  parents  are  black,  the 
tendency  to  blackness  has  utterly  disappeared 
from  their  germ-plasm. 

If  meantime  the  black  members  of  the  frater- 
nity are  interbred,  it  will  presently  be  revealed 
that,  whereas  they  all  look  alike,  there  are  deep- 
seated  differences  between  them.  Certain  among 
them,  if  interbred,  willproduce  only  black  off  spring. 
Kegardless  of  the  fact  that  one  of  their  grand- 
parents was  white,  all  tendency  to  whiteness  has 
disappeared  from  their  germ-plasm.  But  there 
are  others  among  the  black  members  of  the  fra- 
ternity which,  if  interbred,  produce  both  black  and 
white  offspring,  in  the  proportion  of  three  to  one. 
Their  germ-plasm,  like  that  of  their  parents,  con- 
tains elements  of  both  blackness  and  whiteness. 

This  seems  remarkable  enough ;  and  the  wonder 
grows  when  we  learn  that  however  often  the  ex- 
periments are  repeated  the  same  results  are  ob- 
tained generation  after  generation.  Of  any  four 
grandchildren  (on  the  average)  of  a  black  and  a 
white  guinea-pig,  one  is  pure  black,  with  no  tend- 
ency to  whiteness;  one  is  pure  white,  with  no 
tendency  to  blackness;  and  two  are  individually 
black,  but  with  a  latent  tendency  to  whiteness 
that  will  make  about  one-fourth  of  their  offspring 
white. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  offspring  of  the  same 
parents — brothers  and  sisters  in  the  same  litter — 
differ  radically  from  one  another  not  only  in  their 
personal  traits,  but  in  the  latent  traits  carried  in 
their  germ-plasm.  Some  are  pure  black,  some 


202  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

are  pure  white,  and  some  are  mixed;  and  the 
same  law  of  heredity  accounts  for  them  all. 

Now  for  the  application.  It  appears  that  most 
of  the  heritable  human  traits  we  have  all  along 
been  considering  act  in  inheritance  precisely  as 
do  the  qualities  of  blackness  and  whiteness  in  the 
guinea-pig.  As  regards  a  large  number  of  condi- 
tions, normality  may  be  said  to  be  matched  against 
abnormality  as  black  is  matched  against  white  in 
the  animal.  When  a  normal  person  mates  with  a 
feeble-minded  person,  for  example,  the  children 
are  likely  to  be  normal,  but  with  a  latent  tendency 
of  abnormality.  Of  the  offspring  of  these  chil- 
dren (mated  with  others  of  similar  heritage),  out 
of  each  group  of  four,  one  will  be  purely  normal, 
two  will  be  seemingly  normal  but  with  a  latent 
tendency  to  transmit  abnormality,  and  one  will 
be  abnormal. 

Thus  it  appears  that  three  out  of  four  of  the 
grandchildren  of  an  imbecile,  may  be  altogether 
normal,  and  that  one  of  the  three  may  have  not 
even  the  latent  tendency  to  the  affliction  of  their 
grandparent.  The  other  two  have  the  latent  tend- 
ency, but  it  need  never  reappear  in  their  offspring 
if  they  mate  with  normal  persons. 

And  this  fact  is,  on  the  whole,  the  most  wonder- 
ful, as  it  is  the  most  beneficent,  revelation  of  the 
new  heredity. 

In  effect,  good  health  preponderates  over  ill 
health  in  transmission ;  a  trait  that  has  been  bred 
into  your  family  through  the  injudicious  mating 
of  an  ancestor  may  be  bred  out  for  all  time  by 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  203 

judicious  mating.  In  the  course  of  three  genera- 
tions purely  normal  strains  may  be  developed 
from  families  that  were  permeated  with  abnor- 
mality. And  to  accomplish  this,  nothing  more  is 
required  than  the  judicious  selection  of  marriage 
partners. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  selection  of  wrong 
partners  results  in  abnormal  children  with  equal 
certainty.  Dr.  H.  H.  Goddard,  of  the  Training 
School  for  Defectives  at  Vineland,  New  Jersey, 
has  gathered  a  mass  of  evidence  showing  that  the 
mating  of  two  feeble-minded  persons  produces 
only  feeble-minded  offspring.  Similarly  Drs. 
Cannon  and  Rozanoff,  of  the  Kings  Park  Hospital 
for  the  Insane,  find  that  when  both  parents  have 
any  form  of  * '  functional  ' '  insanity,  *  *  all  of  their 
children  will  *  go  insane.'  If  one  parent  is  insane 
and  the  other  normal  but  of  insane  stock,  half  of 
the  children  tend  to  become  insane.  When  both 
parents,  though  normal,  belong  to  insane  stock, 
about  one-fourth  of  the  children  become  insane." 

Thus  these  practical  studies  emphasize  anew 
the  lesson  that  everything  depends  upon  the 
matings. 

New  Tribes  of  Plants  and  Animals 

These  all-important  laws  of  heredity  have  been 
understood  only  in  very  recent  times.  A  clue  to 
their  interpretation  was  gained  through  study  of 
hereditary  transmission  of  a  great  variety  of 
characteristics  in  plants  and  animals.  The 
pioneer  work  was  done  by  the  Austro-Silesian 


204  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

monk,  Gregor  Mendel,  a  full  generation  ago,  but 
no  one  paid  any  attention  to  his  work  until  it  was 
rediscovered  by  the  famous  Professor  de  Vries  of 
Amsterdam. 

In  the  meantime,  Luther  Burbank,  at  Santa 
Rosa,  California,  had  independently  discovered 
the  principle  of  the  segregation  of  characters  and 
their  recombination  in  the  second  generation ;  and 
he  has  made  this  the  basis  of  his  wonderful  ex- 
periments in  the  development  of  new  varieties 
and  even  of  new  species. 

Mendel's  experiments  were  made  chiefly  with 
ordinary  garden  peas.  He  found  that  if  he  inter- 
bred a  tall  variety  of  pea  with  a  short  variety, 
tallness  prevailed  in  the  offspring,  and  shortness 
remained  only  as  a  latent  tendency  that  could 
reappear  in  a  later  generation.  In  a  similar  way 
such  traits  as  white  flowers  versus  pink  flowers; 
green  pods  versus  yellow  pods;  hairiness  of  leaf 
versus  smoothness  of  leaf;  could  be  matched 
against  one  another,  and  experiment  would  show 
which  of  the  mutually  exclusive  traits  would 
directly  reappear  in  the  third  generation. 

It  was  discovered  that  each  particular  trait 
showed  always  the  same  hereditary  capacities  in 
this  regard.  Tallness,  for  example,  is  always 
"  dominant  ";  shortness,  always  "  recessive." 

Similar  tests  have  now  been  applied  to  a  great 
variety  of  antagonistic  and  complementary  traits 
of  many  species  of  plants  and  animals.  Thus 
Professor  Punnett  in  England  and  Professor 
Davenport  in  America  have  made  classical  experi- 


Louis  Pasteur 


Dr.  Alexis  Carrel 


Professor  Metchnikoff  Professor  Biffin 

Four  of  the  best  known  scientists 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  205 

merits  with  fowls;  and  Professor  Castle  at  Har- 
vard, has  elaborately  tested  the  hereditary 
characteristics  of  mice,  guinea-pigs,  and  rabbits. 

By  utilizing  the  knowledge  thus  gained,  it  is 
possible  to  produce  new  breeds  of  plants  or  ani- 
mals in  the  course  of  three  generations.  Thus  Mr. 
Woods,  of  Cambridge,  England,  by  crossing  a 
white-faced  race  of  horned  sheep  with  a  black- 
faced  hornless  race  has  been  able  to  produce  a 
white-faced  race  without  horns. 

Professor  Biffin,  also  of  Cambridge,  has  crossed 
two  strains  of  wheat,  one  of  which  produced  large 
kernels  but  was  susceptible  to  the  plant  disease 
called  rust,  whereas  the  other  produced  small 
kernels  but  was  insusceptible  to  this  disease ;  and 
in  the  third  generation  has  produced  a  new  breed 
combining  large  kernels  and  resistance  to  disease. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  production  of  this  new 
breed  of  wheat  will  save  the  British  farmer  many 
million  of  dollars  annually. 

But  all  such  experiments  are  of  course  of  in- 
significant value  compared  with  the  direct  study 
of  the  heredity  of  human  characteristics. 

To  secure  data  as  to  these,  the  Department  of 
Experimental  Evolution  of  the  Carnegie  Institu- 
tion, with  Professor  C.  B.  Davenport  at  its  head, 
has  for  some  years  been  collecting  human  pedi- 
grees. These  records  are  the  chief  source  of  what 
is  now  known  about  the  heredity  of  diseased  con- 
ditions ;  and  already  they  are  sufficiently  collated 
to  afford  an  invaluable  guide  in  the  practical  mat- 
ter of  the  selection  of  marriage  partners. 


206  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Salvation  Through  Wise  Selection 

In  the  light  of  the  new  knowledge,  the  message 
of  heredity  is  not  fatalistic. 

It  is  true  that  your  tendencies  and  mine  were 
fixed  irrevocably  before  birth.  From  that  con- 
clusion there  is  no  escape.  You  may  have  in- 
herited a  family  taint  that  your  brothers  and 
sisters  have  escaped.  But  it  does  not  follow  that 
you  must  pass  that  taint  on  to  your  children.  On 
the  contrary,  as  we  have  seen,  the  traits  of  your 
prospective  offspring  are  to  be  determined  very 
largely  by  your  own  choice. 

I  If  you  wish  to  have  strong,  healthy,  sane  chil- 
dren, it  is  (barring  a  few  exceptional  cases)  open 
to  you  to  have  such  children.  You  make  the  choice 
when  you  select  a  marriage  partner. 

That  is  the  inspiring,  the  wonderful  message  of 
the  new  heredity.  It  shows  that  it  is  largely  open 
to  your  choice  whether  the  good  traits  or  the  bad 
traits  that  are  latent  in  your  germ-plasm  shall 
become  operative  in  the  personalities  of  your  chil- 
dren. You  may  accentuate  strains  of  abnormality 
or  disease  that  existed  in  some  of  your  ancestors, 
or  you  may  eliminate  such  strains,  accordingly  as 
you  choose  ill  or  well.  There  is  no  sorrow  like 
that  of  having  offspring  that  are  diseased  or 
crippled  or  depraved.  So  you  are  juggling  with 
your  own  happiness  when  you  'make  selection  of 
a  marriage  partner  without  considering  the  com- 
ing generation. 

The  new  heredity  does  not  tell  you  whom  to 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  207 

select  as  a  parent  for  your  children;  but  it  can 
tell  you  whom  not  to  select. 

The  one  simple,  all-encompassing  rule  is  this: 
do  not  marry  into  a  family  that  carries  a  defect 
of  a  kind  that  is  carried  also  in  your  own  family 
strain.  If,  for  example,  one  of  your  parents  died 
of  consumption,  you  know  that  susceptibility  to 
the  tubercle  bacillus  is  latent  in  your  germ-plasm, 
even  though  you  personally  are  thoroughly  resist- 
ant. It  would  be  the  height  of  folly  for  you  to 
marry  an  individual  whose  germ-plasm  carries  a 
similar  taint  of  susceptibility,  even  though  this 
individual  were  also  personally  normal. 

Yet  the  rule  may  be  modified  to  this  extent  in 
accordance  with  the  teaching  of  the  new  heredity: 
if  the  consumptive  member  of  your  direct  an- 
cestral line  was  as  far  removed  as  a  great-grand- 
parent ;  and  if  you  have  at  least  three  brothers  or 
sisters,  all  of  whom  are  normally  resistant,  you 
are  justified  in  assuming  that  (through  wise  se- 
lection) the  taint  has  been  bred  out  of  the 
particular  strain  to  which  you  belong;  and  this 
despite  the  possibility  that  you  have  uncles  and 
aunts  and  cousins  that  are  consumptive. 

All  this  refers,  it  will  be  understood,  to  the  va- 
rious abnormal  conditions  that  tend  to  remain 
latent  in  a  generation  and  to  reappear  under  un- 
favorable conditions  in  later  generations.  It  must 
not  be  overlooked  that  there  are  certain  diseased 
conditions  that  are  directly  transmissible  from 
parent  to  child  and  which,  therefore,  do  not  come 
within  the  scope  of  the  formula  just  given. 


ao8  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

For  example,  there  is  that  protean  malady 
syphilis;  there  is  the  painful  eye  disease  called 
glaucoma;  and  the  systemic  condition  producing 
diabetes.  Doubtless  these  directly  transmissible 
conditions  (in  particular  venereal  diseases)  were 
chiefly  in  the  minds  of  the  Chicago  clergymen  who 
recently  declared  that  in  future  they  would  refuse 
to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  unless  medical 
certificates  were  presented  along  with  marriage 
licenses. 

Of  similar  import  is  the  proposed  New  York 
marriage  law  requiring  a  certificate  showing  free- 
dom from  disease  "  due  to  immorality." 

In  the  light  of  all  the  evidence  we  have  just  ex- 
amined, it  is  obvious  that  a  mere  personal  bill  of 
health  carries  us  only  a  small  way  toward  the 
goal  of  safety.  Still  it  is  a  beginning,  and  as  such 
it  marks  notable  progress.  Ten  years  ago  such 
a  suggestion  could  hardly  have  been  tolerated. 
Now  there  is  every  prospect  that  we  shall  soon  be 
prepared  to  go  much  farther, — challenging  not 
merely  the  personal  health  and  normality  of  the 
marriage  applicant,  but  to  what  is  sometimes 
even  more  important — his  family  history  as  well. 

What  might  be  called  the  negative  side  of  the 
problem  has  already  received  attention  in  the 
laws  permitting  the  sterilization  of  criminals, 
which  are  in  vogue  in  several  States.  Questions 
of  heredity  in  relation  to  the  hordes  of  immigrants 
from  the  lower  order  of  population  of  Europe 
are  also  receiving  recognition.  The  fact  that  5,000 
aliens  are  public  charges  in  the  hospitals  for  the 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  209 

insane  of  New  York  State  alone  challenges  public 
attention. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  think  that  our  children  must 
interbreed  with  the  children  of  atavistic  strains  of 
the  race. 

Moreover  there  are  students  of  heredity  who 
call  attention  to  the  menace  of  a  negro  population 
which  has  doubled  with  each  generation  till  the 
700,000  individuals  of  Colonial  times  have  become 
10,000,000.  The  very  thought  of  miscegenation  is 
repulsive,  yet  statistics  show  us  that  in  some 
States  more  .than  50  per  cent  of  the  colored  popu- 
lation carries  a  recognized  strain  of  white  blood. 
Here  and  there  the  question  is  raised  as  to 
whether  it  may  not  become  necessary  to  restrict 
the  fecundity  of  the  negro  population  that  the 
intellectual  status  of  the  American  race  be  not 
hampered  by  too  large  an  incubus. 

Your  Children 

All  these  larger  racial  questions  have  a  personal 
bearing  for  each  of  us  if  rightly  considered;  but 
our  present  purpose  concerns  largely  the  question 
of  the  application  of  the  new  laws  of  heredity  to 
the  average  normal  individual. 

It  is  obvious  that  you  cannot  avail  yourself  of 
the  knowledge  supplied  by  the  new  studies  of 
heredity,  in  its  practical  application  to  your  own 
case,  unless  you  can  gain  detailed  information  as 
to  the  traits  and  characteristics,  normal  and  ab- 


2io  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

normal,  of  your  own  ancestors  for  at  least  two  or 
three  generations. 

In  this  view  the  study  of  family  trees  takes  on 
new  meaning.  Once  genealogy  was  a  theme  for 
the  dilettante.  It  now  becomes  a  study  of  the  ut- 
most practicality  for  every  one  of  us,  in  our  own 
interests  and  the  interests  of  our  children. 

The  really  important  question  for  each  individ- 
ual is  this :  How  shall  I  set  about  to  investigate 
my  own  pedigree  ? 

It  is  obvious  that  ordinary  genealogical  tables 
are  of  little  value ;  they  fail  to  give  precisely  the 
information  about  health  and  disease  that  is  most 
to  be  desired.  Probably  your  best  resource  will 
be  found  in  your  family  physician.  In  particular 
if  there  is  in  your  community  a  physician  of  the 
elder  generation,  who  knew  your  grandparents 
and  perhaps  their  grandparents,  his  recollections 
and  in  particular  his  case-book  records  may  prove 
invaluable.  Other  clues  may  be  gained  by  con- 
sulting aunts  and  uncles  or  other  relatives,  some 
of  whom  are  pretty  sure  to  have  an  interest  in  the 
family  history  and  to  recall  facts  about  the  health 
of  your  various  ancestors,  the  causes  of  death, 
and  the  like,  that  will  be  of  value  in  piecing  out 
your  chart  of  heredity. 

It  is  clear  that  such  investigation  of  family 
traits  as  is  here  suggested — which  becomes  doubly 
arduous  when  we  reflect  that  it  must  be  applied 
also  to  the  family  of  your  proposed  marriage 
partner — involves  search  that  will  often  prove  dif- 
ficult. But  when  we  reflect  on  the  care  with  which 


Do  You  Choose  Your  Children?  211 

breeders  of  animals  trace  and  guard  the  pedigrees 
of  their  select  stocks  of  dogs  and  cattle  and  horses, 
it  would  seem  as  if  intelligent  human  beings  might 
be  willing  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  their 
progeny  with  at  least  as  much  assiduity. 

If  you  say  that  this  seems  to  rob  marriage  of 
all  romance,  I  content  myself  with  suggesting  that 
there  is  nothing  appealingly  romantic  about  a 
brood  of  feeble-minded  or  tubercular  or  epileptic 
children. 

I  would  suggest,  then,  that  every  reader  of  these 
lines  should  undertake  a  personal  investigation 
as  to  his  own  ancestry,  with  reference  to  heritable 
abnormalities  of  mind  and  body. 

If  you  are  in  doubt  as  to  the  best  method  of 
procedure,  you  can  secure  practical  information 
by  addressing  the  Eugenics  Record  Office  at  Cold 
Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  N.  Y.  Not  only  will 
the  investigators  there  be  glad  of  your  co-opera- 
tion in  securing  genealogical  records,  but  the 
bureau  proffers  its  services  free  of  charge  to  per- 
sons seeking  advice  as  to  the  consequences  of 
proposed  marriage  matings.  Thus  you  may  have 
the  advantage  of  expert  advice  based  upon  the 
fullest  collection  of  records  of  human  matings 
and  their  results  that  is  anywhere  in  existence; 
indeed,  the  only  comprehensive  set  of  records  of 
the  kind  that  has  been  made  for  its  purely  scien- 
tific value. 

What  the  scrutiny  of  your  own  pedigree  teaches 
you  regarding  your  own  germ-plasm  will  be  use- 
ful precisely  in  proportion  as  you  apply  the 


2ia  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

knowledge  in  the  interests  of  your  progeny.  By 
letting  your  passion  of  the  moment  overmaster 
your  judgment,  you  may  be  responsible  for  off- 
spring that  will  rebuke  you  every  hour  of  your 
life.  By  making  practical  application  o/  your 
knowledge,  you  may  avail  yourself  of  the  hopeful 
message  of  heredity  and  may  give  yourself  rea- 
sonable assurance  of  such  a  coterie  of  children  and 
grandchildren  as  may  justly  fulfil  the  Scriptural 
injunction  to  rise  up  and  call  you  blessed. 


vm 

Give  Your  Children  a  Chance 

ARE  you  doing  the  right  thing  by  your  chil- 
•*"•  dren?  The  question  may  sound  almost  in- 
sulting. It  is  not  so  intended.  You  mean  to  do 
the  right  thing  of  course.  Your  life  is  wrapped 
up  in  that  of  your  offspring.  But  is  your  attitude 
toward  them  determined  by  wisdom  as  well  as  by 
right  motives? 

Are  you  aware  that  the  entire  future  of  your 
child  may  be  vitiated  by  some  ill-advised  discipli- 
nary act  of  yours? 

Do  you  know  that  the  physical  stature  of  your 
child  may  be  stunted  by  the  ill-selected  food  you 
give  it,  and  that  its  mental  state  and  moral  nature 
may  be  even  more  hopelessly  dwarfed  and  per- 
verted by  the  wrong  influences  to  which  you  quite 
unwittingly  subject  it  during  the  first  .three  or 
four  years  of  its  life! 

Do  you  realize  that  your  failure  to  give  ade- 
quate sex-instruction  to  your  child  in  its  earliest 
years,  or  your  carelessness  in  the  selection  of  a 
nurse  or  of  child  companions,  may  make  a  per- 
verted being  out  of  one  who  otherwise  might 
have  lived  a  useful  and  happy  life  ? 

These  are  matters  that  challenge  your  atten- 

213 


214  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

tion  and  lie  closer  than  almost  any  others  to  your 
interests. 

Unless  your  co-operation  can  be  secured,  all  the 
efforts  of  the  professional  educators  will  be  un- 
availing. Indeed,  to  a  large  extent  the  task  of 
the  educators  is  to  undo  what  has  been  unwittingly 
done  in  the  way  of  warping  the  mind  of  the 
child.  The  education  of  the  school  should  supple- 
ment the  education  of  the  home ;  but  under  exist- 
ing conditions  the  task  of  the  school  teacher  is 
too  often  not  to  supplement  but  to  correct. 

Is  your  child  among  those  who  are  subject  to 
such  bad  influences  at  home  that  the  task  of 
rightly  educating  it  in  the  school  is  made  doubly 
difficult,  not  to  say  impossible! 

Such  are  the  thoughts  with  which  you  should 
contemplate  the  reports  of  the  remarkable  gather- 
ing of  educators  from  all  over  the  world  that  was 
in  session  (in  the  summer  of  1913)  at  Buffalo, 
New  York, — a  gathering  held  under  the  patronage 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  presided 
over  by  President  Emeritus  Eliot,  of  Harvard, 
and  officially  known  as  the  Fourth  International 
Congress  of  School  Hygiene.  The  proceedings 
of  that  congress  have  far  more  vital  and  poignant 
interest  for  every  parent  than  can  possibly  attach 
to  the  proceedings  of  any  political  body  or  other 
association  concerned  with  the  affairs  of  adults. 
For  it  dealt  with  the  interests  of  the  coming  gen- 
eration,— that  section  of  the  population  which  is 
always  in  the  majority  and  which  will  control  all 
the  possibilities  of  the  future. 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  215 

Scope  of  the  School  Congress 

The  subjects  under  discussion  at  the  Congress 
of  School  Hygiene  were  such  matters  as  these: 
The  hygiene  of  school  building,  grounds,  material, 
equipment,  and  upkeep ;  the  hygiene  of  school  ad- 
ministration, curriculum,  and  schedule;  medical, 
hygienic,  and  sanitary  supervision  in  the  class. 
There  were  symposiums  organized  by  various  na- 
tional societies,  dealing  with  such  subjects  as 
moral  hygiene,  school  feeding,  sex  hygiene,  tuber- 
culosis among  school  children,  child  labor,  and 
physical  education.  Among  the  subjects  to  which 
special  sessions  were  devoted  were  fatigue  and 
nervousness  among  school  children,  mental  hy- 
giene, play  and  athletics,  the  Binet-Simon  scale, 
and  the  conservation  of  vision. 

The  spirt  of  the  congress  was  well  presented  in 
a  preliminary  announcement  by  the  program  com- 
mittee, which  expressed  a  desire  that  the  papers 
presented  should  deal  largely  with  the  results 
secured  through  the  practical  application  of 
scientific  facts  and  procedures  of  school  hygiene, 
and  with  the  results  of  scientific  investigation  and 
laboratory  research. 

Especial  stress  was  laid  on  the  desire  to  secure 
papers  relating  to  rural  hygiene,  and  village 
school  hygiene, — subjects  that  hitherto  had  been 
sadly  neglected. 

The  development  of  an  international  organiza- 
tion having  such  sponsors  and  devoted  to  the 
health  of  the  school  child  is  a  notable  sign  of  the 


2i6  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

times.  The  great  strides  of  preventive  medicine 
in  recent  decades  have  led  to  the  preservation  of 
a  vast  number  of  infant  lives  that  formerly  would 
have  been  sacrificed,  and  as  a  natural  sequel  the 
school  population  has  been  tremendously  aug- 
mented. It  has  been  exceedingly  difficult  in  many 
quarters  to  provide  proper  school-room  accom- 
modations. Undue  crowding  in  rooms  not  prop- 
erly ventilated  or  lighted  has  had  its  inevitable 
effects  in  vitiating  the  health  of  large  numbers  of 
future  citizens. 

But  educators  are  now  alive  to  the  evils  of  the 
situation,  and  the  International  Congress  of 
Hygiene  will  prove  without  doubt  a  reformative 
influence  of  tremendous  importance. 

Teachers  from  all  over  the  country  who  at- 
tended the  conferences  will  return  to  their  local 
schools  with  a  fund  of  information  that  will  be 
invaluable.  The  results  will  before  long  be  meas- 
urable in  the  improved  health  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  children. 

Home  Training 

But  while  this  movement  for  the  betterment  of 
hygienic  conditions  in  the  schools  must  be  admit- 
ted on  all  hands  to  be  of  vast  importance,  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  educators  must  be  supplemented  by 
intelligent  home  supervision,  or  their  best  efforts 
will  be  largely  neutralized.  The  most  perfect 
system  of  school  hygiene  brings  its  direct  influ- 
ence to  bear  on  the  child  for  only  a  few  hours 
each  day,  whereas  the  home  influence  is  perennial. 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  217 

Moreover,  the  school  influence  does  not  begin 
until  the  most  important  period  for  the  building 
of  the  individual  constitution  and  character  has 
passed. 

Few  parents  realize  the  extent  to  which  the 
physical  and  mental  life  of  the  adult  is  predeter- 
mined by  the  conditions  of  infancy  and  earliest 
childhood.  It  is  essential  that  you  should  clearly 
understand  that  the  future  of  your  child  will 
largely  be  determined  for  good  or  ill,  by  the  treat- 
ment to  which  it  is  subjected  during  the  first  three 
or  four  years  of  its  life.  Eight  treatment  during 
this  period  may  give  it  a  start  that  can  with  diffi- 
culty be  checked  even  by  adverse  conditions  after- 
ward; wrong  treatment  gives  it  a  handicap  that 
can  never  be  altogether  overcome  even  under  the 
most  favorable  influences  of  later  life.  The  old 
familiar  saw  about  the  bent  twig  epitomizes  a 
fundamental  truth. 


The  Value  of  Mother's  Milk 

At  the  very  threshold  of  life,  a  large  proportion 
of  infants  are  handicapped  by  improper  feeding: 
Specialists  are  agreed  that  there  is  only  one  really 
correct  diet  for  the  infant — and  that  is  mother's 
milk. 

In  a  recent  address  given  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Council  of  Health  and  Public  Instruction  of 
the  American  Medical  Association  of  the  Women's 
Municipal  League  of  Boston,  Dr.  Thomas  F.  Har- 
rington emphasized  the  fact  that  the  subject  of 


2i8  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

infant  feeding  must  be  treated  not  as  an  ethical 
question  alone  but  as  an  important  problem  of 
preventive  medicine. 

1 '  It  is  an  undisputed  fact,"  said  Dr.  Harring- 
ton, "  that  certain  vital  tendencies  which  make 
for  the  welfare  of  the  infant,  such  as  immunity 
against  certain  infectious  diseases  are  transmit- 
ted through  the  mother's  milk  to  her  child. 
Neither  a  wet-nurse's  breast-milk  nor  a  cow's  milk 
can  do  this  for  the  child." 

"  From  80  to  90  per  cent  of  all  deaths  from 
gastro-intestinal  disease  among  infants  takes 
place  in  the  artifically  fed ;  or  ten  bottle-fed  babies 
die  to  one  which  is  breast-fed.  In  institutions  it 
has  been  found  that  the  death-rate  is  frequently 
from  90  to  100  per  cent  when  babies  are  separated 
from  their  mothers.  During  the  siege  of  Paris 
(1870-71)  the  women  were  compelled  to  nurse 
their  own  babies  on  account  of  the  absence  of 
cow's  milk.  Infant  mortality  under  one  year  fell 
from  33  to  7  per  cent.  During  the  cotton  famine 
of  1860  women  were  not  at  work  in  the  mills. 
They  nursed  their  babies  and  one-half  of  the  in- 
fant mortality  disappeared." 

These  are  facts  that  every  mother  should  take 
to  heart.  It  seems  impossible  to  escape  the  con- 
clusion that  the  healthy  mother  who  wilfully  re- 
fuses to  nurse  her  child  directly  threatens  not 
merely  the  health  but  the  life  of  her  offspring. 

After  the  child  has  passed  the  gauntlet  of  in- 
fancy, the  question  of  its  proper  feeding  remains 
a  highly  important  one.  Dr.  Lewellys  F.  Barker, 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  219 

of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  says  that  "  faulty 
feeding  in  infancy  and  early  childhood  may  lead 
to  such  impoverishment  of  the  tissues  and  such  a 
stunting  of  growth  that  the  ill  effects  can  never 
be  recovered  from  in  later  life.  A  considerable 
proportion  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  inferiori- 
ties among  our  people  is  fairly  attributable  to  im- 
perfect nutrition  at  this  early  age." 

Dr.  Barker  declares  that  many  parents  make  a 
very  vital  mistake  in  allowing  the  caprice  of  the 
child  to  influence  its  diet.  "  We  know  the  foods 
that  are  suitable  for  children,"  he  says,  "  and, 
knowing  these,  the  children  should  be  provided 
with  them  in  suitable  amounts  and  should  be  re- 
quired to  eat  them,  largely  independent  of  choice. 
The  child  that  learns  to  eat  and  digest  all  whole- 
some foods  and  who  is  not  permitted  to  cultivate 
little  food  antipathies  makes  a  good  start  and 
avoids  one  of  the  worst  pitfalls  of  life  with  which 
medical  men  are  very  familiar,  namely,  a  finical 
anxiety  concerning  the  effects  of  various  foods,  all 
too  likely  to  develop  into  a  hypochondriacal 
state." 

While  thus  arguing  the  value  of  a  varied  dietary 
of  wholesome  foods,  it  is  well  also  to  emphasize 
certain  restrictions.  In  particular  it  should  be 
known  to  every  parent  that  tea,  coffee,  and  alcohol 
in  any  form  are  deleterious  to  the  growing  child 
and  should  be  absolutely  interdicted.  This  may 
be  stated  without  reserve.  It  is  a  point  regarding 
which  all  competent  authorities  are  in  perfect 
agreement. 


220  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

If  you  allow  your  child  to  develop  a  taste  for 
any  of  these  beverages,  you  do  it  a  positive  injury. 


New  Interest  in  Children 

Only  in  the  most  recent  times  has  anything  like 
a  clear  and  full  comprehension  been  attained,  by 
educators  in  general,  as  to  the  share  which  home 
influence  and  education  outside  the  schoolroom 
must  always  play  in  the  development  of  mind  and 
character,  and  as  to  the  paramount  importance  of 
the  child  in  determining  the  future  welfare  of  the 
state. 

President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  of  Clark  University, 
emphasizes  this  in  a  recent  address  before  the 
American  Sociological  Society,  in  which  he  refers 
to  "  the  remarkable  new  interest  in  childhood, 
which  in  many  respects  in  this  country  had  grown 
colder,  more  formal  and  oblivious  than  in  any 
land  or  period  in  the  world,  but  which  has  lately 
resulted  in  the  formation  of  some  hundred  and 
eleven  (as  we  classify  them)  organizations  for 
child  welfare  and  benefit,  and  in  a  renaissance  of 
interest  in  work  for  children  so  great  that  some 
enthusiasts  have  even  wanted  to  call  this  the  cen- 
tury of  the  child. 

"  What  does  this  recent  awakening  to  the  na- 
ture and  needs  of  children,  that  is  now  pervading 
all  civilized  countries  and  has  resulted  in  the 
institution  of  many  academic  chairs,  laboratories, 
clinics,  journals,  and  a  vast  and  rapidly  growing 
body  of  literature,  really  mean?  It  certainly 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  221 

marks  an  extension  of  our  social  consciousness, 
an  enlargement  of  our  interests,  and  a  new  awak- 
ening of  our  duties  to  the  young." 

It  goes  without  saying  that  a  few  leaders  of 
thought — prominent  among  them  President  Hall 
himself — have  long  recognized  the  importance  of 
the  subject  which  is  now  being  brought  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  general  public.  Every  experienced 
alienist  has  seen  cases  of  profound  perversion  of 
mind,  which  could  be  traced  directly  to  incidents 
of  childhood. 

And  no  wise  student  of  the  subject  has  doubted 
that  every  experience  of  childhood  puts  its  mark 
indelibly  upon  the  brain  and  mind  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

Perhaps  it  seems  incomprehensible  to  you  that 
a  fright  experienced  by  your  child  at  the  age  of 
two  or  three  years  can  be  instrumental  in  deter- 
mining the  complexion  of  mind  of  that  child  after 
it  has  come  to  adult  age, — can,  for  example,  give 
it  a  life-long  inherent  timidity  that  will  dominate 
it  under  given  conditions.  Such,  however,  is  the 
fact;  and  a  clear  recognition  by  every  parent  of 
this  elementary  truth  would  mark  a  new  era  in 
the  treatment  of  the  child,  and  in  the  social  prog- 
ress of  humanity  in  general. 

Says  the  Italian  physiologist  Mosso:  "  Every 
ugly  thing  told  to  the  child,  every  shock,  every 
fright  given  him,  will  remain  like  a  minute 
splinter  in  the  flesh,  to  torture  him  all  his  life 
long."  Dr.  Barker,  in  quoting  this  statement  with 
approval,  points  out  that  "  in  Greece  and  Home 


222  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

the  children  were  frightened  with  the  lamias  or 
female  demons  who  would  charm  them  and  suck 
their  blood,  with  the  one-eyed  Cyclops  or  with  a 
block  god,  Mercury,  who  would  come  to  carry 
them  away. ' '  And  he  adds :  *  *  This  very  perni- 
cious error  in  education  still  prevails.  The 
mother,  the  nurse,  the  maid,  and  the  servants  still 
frighten  the  child  with  tales  of  the  bogeyman,  of 
goblins,  or  ogres,  of  wizards,  and  of  witches." 

Such  treatment  not  only  makes  life  a  burden 
to  the  child,  but  * '  sometimes  fears  are  thus  started 
which  last  through  life." 

Dr.  Barker  urges  that  instead  of  thus  stimulat- 
ing fears,  the  wise  parent  will  endeavor  to  teach 
the  child  to  be  courageous  and  not  to  have  fear 
of  being  alone,  or  of  the  dark,  or  of  thunder  and 
lightning.  Certain  fears,  common  to  childhood, 
he  says,  are  easily  overcome,  especially  through 
the  example  of  courage  set  by  parent,  nurse,  or 
teacher.  There  are  cases,  however,  in  which  the 
fears  are  a  symptom  of  disease. 

Thus  a  young  girl  brought  to  Dr.  Barker  be- 
cause of  an  unaccountable,  persistent,  and  dis- 
tressing fear  of  "  burglars  in  the  house,"  was 
found  to  be  suffering  from  exophthalmic  goitre. 
"  On  removal  of  a  portion  of  the  thyroid  gland 
by  Dr.  Halsted  the  child  rapidly  improved  and  on 
last  report  was  only  occasionally  troubled  by  the 
fear;  it  seems  probable  that  she  will  soon  be  en- 
tirely free  from  it.  Children  who  suffer  from 
*  night  terrors  '  often  have  adenoid  growths  in 
the  nasopharynx ;  on  removal  of  the  growth  by  a 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  223 

slight  operation  the  *  night  terrors  '  disappear.'* 
Bear  these  cases  in  mind,  if  your  child  is  unduly 
timid.  Do  what  you  can  to  allay  its  fears  by  pre- 
cept and  example.  And  if  the  fears  persist,  con- 
sult a  physician. 


Actual  Age  and  Mental  Age 

It  has  been  said  pertinently  by  a  German  nerve 
specialist,  Dr.  H.  M.  Oppenheim,  that  a  child's 
childishness  is  its  greatest  asset.  It  is  always  a 
misfortune  for  children  to  be  unduly  associated 
with  other  children  much  older  than  themselves 
or  with  adults.  Children  who  are  made  to  visit 
museums,  picture  galleries,  and  the  like,  or  listen 
to  conversation  or  lectures  unsuited  to  their  years, 
not  only  do  not  benefit  thereby,  but  suffer  positive 
injury. 

These  things  should  come  in  their  time  and 
place  and  cannot  advantageously  be  forced  on  the 
attention  of  the  undeveloped  mind. 

You  should  never  forget  that  the  interests  of 
your  child  are  naturally  and  properly  different 
from  your  interests.  It  is  in  the  main  normal  that 
your  children  should  enjoy  the  childish  sports 
and  diversions  which  you  once  enjoyed.  So  do 
not  attempt  to  direct  the  activities  of  the  child 
into  channels  that  would  be  normal  only  at  a  later 
period  of  mental  development.  The  best  safe- 
guard against  this  mistake  is  to  see  that  the  child 
associates  largely  with  other  children  of  its  own 
age.  To  this  end  and  for  many  reasons  it  is  de- 


224  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

sirable  that  the  child  should  attend  the  public 
schools,  being  there  brought  into  contact  with 
varied  personalities,  and  subject  to  the  influences 
that  will  most  advantageously  shape  its  own  char- 
acter. 

But  in  attempting  to  follow  out  this  idea,  edu- 
cators have  in  recent  years  come  to  understand 
more  and  more  clearly  that  there  is  danger  of  lay- 
ing too  much  stress  on  the  age  of  the  child  as 
determined  by  count  of  birthdays. 

Even  among  perfectly  normal  children,  some  in- 
dividuals develop  much  more  rapidly  than  others. 
There  is  no  close  relation  between  precocity  and 
final  development  of  mind  and  body.  But  a  fail- 
ure to  recognize  these  facts  may  lead  to  the  plac- 
ing in  the  same  grade  of  children  who  are  really 
at  quite  different  stages  of  mental  development, 
and  to  the  imposing  of  tasks  that  for  part  of  the 
pupils  in  the  grade  are  very  easy,  while  for  others 
they  are  unwarrantably  difficult. 

In  recent  years  it  has  been  possible  to  determine 
the  mental  age  of  any  given  child  quickly  and  with 
a  good  degree  of  accuracy  by  application  of  what 
are  called  the  Binet-Simon  tests.  To  supply  a 
foundation  for  such  a  determination,  the  French 
psychologists  Binet  and  Simon  made  elaborate 
analyses  of  the  mentality  of  large  numbers  of 
children. 

These  experiments  have  furnished  a  basis  for 
comparison  which  is  accepted  as  having  a  wide 
range  of  applicability. 

According  to  the  scale,  it  is  determined  that  the 


Determining  the  mental  age  of  a  child  by  the  application  of  the 
Binet-Simon  and  Sequin  tests 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  225 

average  or  normal  mind  at  a  given  age  can  make 
certain  observations  and  deduce  certain  conclu- 
sions which  may  be  regarded  as  typical  of  a  par- 
ticular period  of  life. 

Thus  at  a  certain  age  a  child  becomes  for  the 
first  time  able  to  trace  the  outline  of  a  simple  fig- 
ure with  a  pencil;  at  a  certain  age  it  has  learned 
to  recognize  the  primary  colors  by  name ;  at  a  cer- 
tain age  it  can  repeat  a  given  number  of  words 
or  figures  consecutively  on  hearing  them  once,  and 
so  on. 

By  a  series  of  such  practical  tests,  becoming 
more  elaborate  of  course  with  the  advancing  age 
of  the  child,  a  system  is  provided  through  which 
it  becomes  possible  to  gauge  the  mental  age  of  any 
individual  child  irrespective  of  the  child's  actual 
age  hi  years.  And  when  such  tests  are  applied, 
it  soon  becomes  evident  that  the  school  classes,  as 
ordinarily  graded,  contain  a  great  many  very 
serious  misfits. 

There  are  physically  well-developed  boys  and 
girls  of  sixteen  whose  mental  age  is  only  ten  or 
eleven ;  just  as,  contrariwise,  there  are  children  of 
ten  or  eleven  whose  minds  have  advanced  to  the 
sixteen-year-grade  of  perceiving  and  thinking  ca- 
pacity. Of  course,  every  teacher  has  been  vaguely 
aware  of  such  discrepancies,  but  hitherto  there 
has  been  no  definite  way  of  testing  them  with  ac- 
curacy; inasmuch  as  a  misfit  pupil  might  by  ex- 
cessive diligence  keep  his  grade  and  struggle 
through  his  examinations  without  realization  on 
the  part  of  the  pupil  himself  or  of  teacher  or  par- 


226  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

ents  that  the  effort  required  to  produce  this  result 
was  an  abnormal  one. 

The  advantages  both  for  the  normal  and  ab- 
normal child,  in  having  tests  applied  that  would 
produce  a  more  scientific  grading  are  patent  to 
every  educator.  Hence  the  eagerness  with  which 
the  new  tests  have  been  taken  up.  As  usual  in 
such  cases  enthusiasm  has  sometimes  outrun  strict 
knowledge,  and  the  specialists  are  now  coming  to 
point  out  certain  limitations  of  the  Binet-Simon 
tests,  and  in  particular  to  urge  that  these  tests 
cannot  advantageously  be  applied  by  amateur  psy- 
chologists; but  the  value  of  the  tests  as  properly 
applied  by  skilled  investigators  is  freely  and 
generally  admitted. 

At  the  Buffalo  Congress  on  School  Hygiene,  an 
elaborate  conference  was  devoted  to  this  aspect 
of  education. 

Dr.  H.  H.  Goddard  has  made  elaborate  applica- 
tion of  the  Binet-Simon  tests  to  the  children  under 
his  care  at  the  Vineland  Training  School  for  De- 
fectives. He  also  tested  recently  a  large  number 
of  the  school  children  of  New  York  City,  and  his 
studies  here  revealed  an  astonishing  number  of 
defectives  whose  inherent  mental  disabilities  had 
not  previously  been  fully  recognized. 

Dr.  Goddard  thinks  that  the  Binet-Simon  tests 
deserve  a  place  beside  Darwin's  exposition  of  evo- 
lution and  Mendel's  laws  of  heredity. 

The  time  is  probably  not  distant  when  every 
wise  parent  will  apply  similar  tests  to  his  own 
children,  and  will  be  governed  in  considerable 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  227 

measure  in  directing  the  education  and  in  the 
selection  of  vocations  for  his  offspring  by  what 
the  tests  reveal.  If  your  child  fails  to  get  on  well 
at  school,  or  manifests  any  peculiar  traits  that 
cause  you  solicitude,  it  will  be  well  for  you  to  have 
the  Binet-Simon  tests  applied  by  a  competent 
examiner. 

Nature  Versus  Nurture 

It  is  eminently  desirable  that  you  should  study 
the  hereditary  tendencies  of  your  children,  and 
note  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  what  particu- 
lar strains  of  ancestral  traits  seem  to  be  dominant 
in  each  one,  for,  according  to  the  newest  teachings 
of  heredity,  members  of  the  same  fraternity  may 
differ  very  radically  in  this  regard. 

It  will  be  obvious  that  children  inheriting  dif- 
ferent physical  and  mental  traits  may  require 
quite  different  treatment. 

In  particular,  if  the  study  of  your  family  history 
shows  the  tendency  to  any  given  disease, — say 
tuberculosis, — it  will  be  the  part  of  elemental  wis- 
dom to  bear  this  fact  in  mind  in  caring  for  your 
children.  But  after  full  allowance  has  been  made 
for  all  hereditary  tendencies,  it  remains  true  that 
a  tremendous,  and  in  many  cases  even  a  dominat- 
ing, influence  may  be  exerted  by  environment. 
Take,  as  an  extreme  illustration,  the  case  of  a 
child  who  is  born  with  the  utmost  degree  of  sus- 
ceptibility to  tuberculosis.  It  is  a  truism  to  say 
that  notwithstanding  such  susceptibility  the  child 
would  never  become  tubercular  were  it  possible  to 


228  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

shut  it  away  absolutely  from  the  invasion  of  the 
tubercle  bacillus. 

And  the  same  thing  holds  true,  with  equal  obvi- 
ousness, regarding  each  and  every  germ  disease ; 
that  is  to  say,  regarding  practically  all  the  mala- 
dies that  chiefly  menace  the  health  and  life  of  the 
infant  and  growing  child. 

Such  an  illustration  vividly  presents  the  case  of 
environment  as  against  heredity. 

A  similar  application  might  be  made,  although 
it  could  not  be  so  tangibly  illustrated,  with  regard 
to  the  mental  and  moral  traits  of  the  child.  Here 
also  the  influence  of  the  surroundings  may  be 
sufficient  to  determine  in  very  large  measure, 
whether  a  given  child  shall  grow  up  a  normal 
member  of  society  or  whether  it  shall  become  a 
perverted  criminal  or  an  insane  dependent. 

But  in  practical  life  it  is  not  possible  to  shelter 
the  susceptible  child  absolutely  from  the  menace 
of  unwholesome  surroundings.  So  it  is  necessary 
to  fortify  the  individual  constitution  by  harden- 
ing it  and  rendering  it  more  or  less  immune  to 
the  effects  of  adverse  conditions.  We  are  learn- 
ing more  and  more  as  the  study  of  germ  disease 
becomes  more  profound,  that  safety  against  these 
diseases  depends  very  largely  upon  the  develop- 
ment in  the  organism  of  antidotes  to  the  bacterial 
poisons.  In  specific  cases,  such  as  smallpox  and 
typhoid  fever,  we  may  aid  nature  by  using  pre- 
ventive vaccines.  But  there  are  numerous  bac- 
terial diseases  against  which  as  yet  no  system  of 
preventive  innoculation  has  been  devised. 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  229 

The  way  to  fight  these  diseases  is  to  bring  the 
body  to  the  highest  possible  plane  of  general 
health. 

It  is  noted  in  every  epidemic  of  a  virulent  dis- 
ease that  there  are  individuals  who  are  not  sus- 
ceptible. Generally  speaking,  these  are  the 
persons  who  have  the  largest  measure  of  what, 
for  want  of  a  more  precise  term,  is  commonly 
spoken  of  as  vitality.  As  a  general  observation, 
the  weakly  and  ill-nourished  children  in  the  com- 
.munity  succumb  to  contagious  diseases  where  the 
strong,  well-nourished  escape. 

It  is  the  part  of  elemental  wisdom,  then,  to  study 
the  physical  traits  of  your  children  and  to  adopt, 
under  medical  supervision,  such  a  regimen  of  diet 
and  general  hygiene  as  will  give  each  child  the 
fullest  measure  of  robustness  of  constitution  that 
its  hereditary  limitations  permit. 

It  is  in  following  out  this  idea  on  a  large  scale 
that  the  modern  hygienist  advocates  life  in  the 
open  air  for  children  in  general,  and  in  particular 
for  those  who  lack  inherited  robustness  of  consti- 
tution. 

Playground  Versus  Schoolroom 

We  now  know  that  the  weakly  child  should  be 
kept  on  the  playground  rather  than  in  the  school- 
room, even  at  the  expense  of  retardation  of  its 
book  education. 

A  sickly  child  that  has  been  kept  out  of  school 
altogether  up  to  the  age  of  seven  or  eight  will 
generally  be  farther  advanced  in  its  studies  at  the 


230  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

age  of  twelve  than  it  could  possibly  have  been 
had  its  physical  health  in  earlier  childhood  been 
sacrificed  to  the  parental  solicitude  for  its  book 
training.  For  the  child  with  susceptible  lungs — 
and,  indeed,  for  children  in  general — that  wonder- 
ful modern  invention,  the  open  air  school,  is  a 
positive  boon. 

As  supplementing  the  out-of-door  life  for  the 
weakly  child  it  is  desirable  to  practise  a  syste- 
matic hardening  of  the  constitution  with  the  aid 
of  cool  baths.  These  should  be  used  with  judg- 
ment, of  course.  To  subject  the  child  to  a  cool 
bath  from  which  it  does  not  react  healthfully  would 
be  detrimental.  But  by  beginning  early  and  tem- 
pering the  bath  to  the  needs  of  the  individual, 
gradually  using  cooler  water  as  the  child  becomes 
accustomed  to  it,  it  is  possible  to  develop  a  hardi- 
ness of  constitution,  and  powers  of  resistance  to 
changes  of  temperature,  which  will  stand  the  indi- 
vidual in  good  stead. 

To  be  susceptible  to  all  changes  of  temperature, 
and  thus  rendered  perennially  unhappy  about  the 
weather  over  which  we  have  no  control,  is  to  carry  a 
tangible  handicap  in  the  business  of  everyday  life. 

The  judicious  prescription  of  open  air  life  and 
cool  baths  for  the  growing  child  may  very  largely 
give  it  immunity  against  this  influence. 

A  child  thus  hardened  will  be  but  little  suscep- 
tible to  ' '  taking  cold ' ' ;  and  it  will  have 
corresponding  power  of  resistance  against  the 
germs  of  the  more  virulent  maladies. 

The  daily  experience  of  the  child  that  mingles 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  231 

much  with  other  children  and  participates  in  the 
rough-and-ready  games  of  childhood,  will  result 
not  only  in  the  development  of  physical  robust- 
ness, but  also  in  a  considerable  measure  of  what 
Dr.  Barker  very  aptly  describes  as  psychic  harden- 
ing. Dr.  Barker  suggests  that  one  reason  why 
women  are  more  prone  in  later  life  to  nervous- 
ness than  men  may  lie  in  the  lesser  opportunity 
that  girls  have  for  bodily  and  psychic  hardening 
in  the  games  which  they  play  and  the  life  which 
they  lead  as  children. 

He  particularly  cautions  that  care  should  be 
taken  with  young  girls  who  show  any  tendency 
to  nervousness  to  see  that  not  too  much  concession 
is  made  to  their  likes  and  dislikes,  since  for  such 
children  nothing  could  be  more  harmful  than  the 
gratification  of  caprice. 

"  Especially  when  a  child  shows  a  tendency  to 
be  nauseated  by  certain  smells  and  tastes  and 
to  complain  of  noises  and  a  sensitiveness  to  bright 
light,"  he  urges,  "  the  family  physician  should 
be  consulted,  and,  provided  no  actual  disease  of 
the  sense  organs  or  brain  is  responsible,  the  proc- 
esses of  psychic  hardening  should  at  once  be 
begun."  This  process  includes  keeping  the  infant 
in  a  normal  routine  despite  any  emotional  out- 
breaks ;  in  repression  of  outbursts  of  temper ;  and 
in  convincing  the  child  that  it  can  get  things  by 
controlling  itself  rather  than  by  emotional  ex- 
plosions. 

And  as  to  all  this,  the  home  training  may  best 
be  supplemented  by  the  wholesome  influence  of 


232  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

association  with  other  children.  In  the  wonder- 
ful commonwealth  of  the  playground,  the 
emotional  outbursts  of  the  individual  are  made 
to  seem  ridiculous,  egoistic  desires  are  subordi- 
nated to  the  wishes  of  the  many,  and  lessons  in 
self-control  are  inculcated  that  will  be  of  utmost 
importance  in  after  life. 

The  parent  who  adopts  the  coddling  process  of 
keeping  his  child  away  from  the  "  rough  "  asso- 
ciations of  the  playground  does  that  child  an 
irretrievable  injury. 

Moral  Training 

As  further  stabilizing  the  developing  mind  and 
giving  it  a  just  estimate  of  its  own  relations  to 
the  environment,  it  is  desirable,  particularly  in 
the  case  of  the  nervous  child,  to  guard  against 
meeting  its  complaints  with  an  exhibition  of  un- 
due sympathy.  Undue  egoism  is  the  perennial 
fault  of  the  unstable  mind,  and  this  may  begin 
to  show  itself  at  a  very  early  period. 

The  desire  to  attract  attention  at  all  hazards 
is  a  symptom  which  should  be  'regarded  by  the 
parent  with  out  and  out  solicitude. 

A  typical  illustration  of  this  desire  carried  to 
an  extreme  is  shown  in  the  record  of  a  girl  who 
is  now  the  inmate  of  a  reformatory  institution. 
The  case  is  recorded  by  Miss  Winifred  Hathaway, 
in  a  Bulletin  of  the  Eugenics  Record  Office. 
"  From  childhood  this  girl  would  do  anything  to 
attract  attention  to  herself.  For  instance,  when 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  233 

'  Jack  the  Snipper  '  was  cutting  the  hair  of  girls 
in  the  streets  of  Boston,  the  patient  caused  a  sen- 
sation by  cutting  off  her  own  hair.  She  hid  it 
and  invented  a  thrilling  story  of  her  encounter 
with  the  vandal,  was  delighted  when  brought  to 
court,  and  confessed  only  when  confronted  with 
hair  which  had  been  found." 

Not  many  children  go  quite  so  far  as  this,  to  be 
sure,  but  exhibitions  of  the  same  general 
character  and  import  are  matters  of  everyday 
experience. 

The  wise  parent  will  treat  such  craving  after 
sympathy  and  attention  as  evidence  of  mental  and 
moral  instability.  To  cater  to  this  craving  is  to 
stimulate  development  in  the  wrong  direction.  In 
the  case  of  the  girl  just  referred  to,  the  failure 
to  repress  this  abnormal  tendency  permitted  the 
development  of  a  character  that  was  finally  diag- 
nosed as  "  deficient  in  any  moral  sense,  incapable 
of  acquiring  it,  and  requiring  permanent  custodial 
care."  The  girl  had  so  far  degenerated  at  the 
age  of  nineteen  that  the  Binet-Simon  test  gave 
her  mental  age  at  11.4  years.  Yet  she  had  been 
fairly  good  at  her  school  studies  at  an  earlier 
age,  reaching  the  eighth  grade  with  no  particular 
difficulty. 

The  traits  which  in  the  young  girl  were  charac- 
terized as  "  wilfulness  and  quick  temper,"  and 
the  egoism  that  manifested  itself  in  the  childish 
trick  of  hair-cutting,  had  been  permitted  to  de- 
velop and  to  reach  a  culmination  in  immorality 
and  mental  decadence. 


334  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Such  a  case  conveys  a  warning  which  should 
not  be  blinked  at  by  the  parent  of  any  nervous 
child  whose  craving  for  sympathy,  undue  sensi- 
tiveness, and  tendency  to  take  offense  at  fancied 
slights  give  evidence  of  its  unhealthy  egoism.  Of 
course,  the  hungry  mind  should  not  be  embittered 
by  the  absence  of  judiciously  worded  and  sympa- 
thetic approval  on  occasion,  but  wholesome  re- 
straint should  be  inculcated  by  the  avoidance  of 
injudicious  and  indiscriminate  praise;  and  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  restrain  the  eccentrici- 
ties of  such  a  child  and  to  mold  it  toward  the 
normal,  instead  of  fostering  its  peculiarities  and 
taking  pride  in  its  abnormalities  as  parents  are 
prone  to  do. 

The  Need  of  Sex  Education 

In  recent  years  we  have  heard  on  all  sides 
reference  to  "  sex  hygiene  "  as  a  topic  meriting 
the  careful  attention  of  the  educator.  Until  very 
recently  the  subject  was  quite  unheard  of  in  this 
connection.  The  reason  for  the  change  in  the 
public  attitude  is,  presumably,  that  we  have  not 
progressed  very  well  under  the  hitherto  prevailing 
method  of  reticence. 

The  puritannical  spirit  of  our  forefathers  made 
the  subject  now  implied  by  "  sex  hygiene  "  taboo 
in  all  general  discussions.  But  the  undiscussed 
subjects  were  in  no  wise  subordinated,  and  the 
spread  of  what  is  euphemistically  described  as 
"  white  slavery,"  and  of  venereal  diseases,  with 
their  patent  evils,  served  finally  to  convince  a 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  235 

large  number  of  educators  that  we  were  not  on 
the  right  track.  At  Mannheim,  in  Germany,  in 
May,  1907,  there  was  held  a  conference  of  sex 
hygiene  at  which  a  discussion  of  the  teaching  of 
sex  in  schools  and  colleges  was  participated  in  by 
the  most  distinguished  educators  and  physicians 
in  Germany. 

There  was  a  general  concensus  of  opinion,  ac- 
cording to  the  report  of  Dr.  Prince  A.  Morrow, 
that  sex  should  be  taught  in  the  secondary  school 
classes  and  the  colleges  and  universities,  and  by 
some  it  was  urged  that  it  should  be  taught  in  the 
elementary  schools. 

* '  All  agreed  that  while  instruction  in  the  origin 
of  life  should  be  given  in  the  home  and  at  an  early 
age,  the  majority  of  parents  were  not  qualified  to 
give  it,  and  that  the  duty  therefore  devolved  upon 
teachers,  and  should  be  an  integral  part  of  the 
course  of  study  in  all  normal  schools. 

'  *  In  most  of  the  states  of  Germany,  courses  of 
sex  pedagogy  for  advanced  high  school  students 
have  been  established.  As  these  students  are  dis- 
charged from  school,  they  are  enlightened  by 
medical  lectures  on  the  nature  and  peril  of  vene- 
real diseases.  There  have  also  been  established 
lectures  for  parents  in  order  to  enable  them  to 
deal  intelligently  with  the  sexual  problem  in  the 
education  of  their  children.  Somewhat  similar 
work  is  being  done  in  France,  and  the  teaching 
of  sex  has  been  made  mandatory  in  the  Lycees 
by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction. 

* '  In  this  country,  a  number  of  biological  teach- 


236  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

ers  have,  of  their  own  initiative,  inaugurated  the 
biological  teaching  of  sex  in  high  schools  and 
colleges.  At  the  October  meeting  of  the  American 
Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis, 
papers  were  read  by  President  Hall  of  Clark  Uni- 
versity and  Professor  Bigelow  of  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University,  and  discussed  by 
leading  members  of  the  Biological  Teachers'  Asso- 
ciation. The  opinion  was  freely  expressed  that 
sex  instruction  forms  an  absolutely  essential  part 
of  a  rational  education,  and  that  the  benefits  to 
be  derived  from  the  biological  teaching  of  sex 
were  so  great  that  all  opposition  thereto  was 
bound  to  disappear. 

11  The  necessity  of  such  teaching  was  held  to 
be  too  evident  to  be  discussed.  The  question  now 
was  one  of  matter  and  methods — the  facts  to  be 
taught,  the  study  of  specific  methods,  the  adapta- 
tion to  the  age  and  mentality  of  the  youth,  and  the 
training  of  teachers  in  normal  schools  for  this 
important  work." 

The  growth  of  the  movement  in  this  country  is 
further  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  National 
Federation  for  Sex  Hygiene  has  for  honorary 
president  that  most  distinguished  of  American 
educators,  President-Emeritus  Charles  W.  Eliot 
of  Harvard.  Under  the  auspices  of  this  federa- 
tion, a  committee  comprising  Professor  Thomas 
M.  Balliet,  Dean  of  the  New  York  School  of  Peda- 
gogy, Professor  Maurice  A.  Bigelow  of  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University,  and  the  late  Dr. 
Prince  A.  Morrow,  formulated  a  plan  for  sex  edu- 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  237 

cation,  and  secured  the  opinions  of  a  large  number 
of  prominent  educators  and  medical  men. 

The  report  of  these  investigators  was  presented 
before  the  sub-section  on  sex  hygiene  in  the  Fif- 
teenth International  Congress  on  Hygiene  and 
Demography,  held  in  Washington,  in  1912,  and 
was  subsequently  issued  as  a  pamphlet  for  gen- 
eral distribution. 

Thirteen  propositions,  covering  the  essential 
aspects  of  sex  education  were  submitted  to  the 
educators  and  medical  men  whose  opinions  were 
sought,  and  the  almost  unanimous  response  left 
no  possible  doubt  as  to  the  present  tenor  of  opin- 
ion as  to  the ' '  need  of  special  instruction  of  young 
people  in  the  scientific  principles  of  sex." 

As  to  that  fundamental  proposition,  indeed, 
there  were  91  responses  in  the  affirmative,  as 
against  no  negatives  and  only  5  expressions  of 
doubt. 

In  expressing  his  own  belief  in  the  need  of  such 
instruction,  the  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  President 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Special  Service,  made 
the  following  statement:  "  Inquiries  made  more 
than  fifteen  years  ago,  in  New  England,  Minne- 
sota, California,  and  in  thirty  cities  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, all  revealed  a  shocking  condition  among 
children,  indicating  great  need  of  sex  instruction ; 
and  the  answer  to  2,000  letters  of  inquiry  sent 
eighteen  months  ago  to  school  superintendents  and 
principals  in  all  the  States  of  the  Union  confirmed 
the  judgment." 

Professor  Peter  Frandsen,  of  the  University 


238  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

of  Nevada,  described  the  need  of  such  instruction 
as  fourfold:  "  (a)  Hygienic  and  eugenic — better 
sex  health  and  better  progeny;  (b)  The  control 
of  venereal  diseases;  (c)  To  save  young  people 
from  needless  mental  disturbances  over  normal 
sexual  phenomena,  and  to  save  them  from  the  im- 
positions of  quackery;  (d)  To  change  the  attitude 
from  the  present  one  of  total  avoidance,  or  a  sub- 
ject fit  only  for  lewd  conversation,  to  one  of  serious 
respect." 

Sex  Education  Must  Begin  Early 

Dr.  Balliet's  report  expressly  recognizes  the 
fact  that  the  "  less  children  and  youth  think  of 
sex,  and  the  later  they  mature  sexually,  the  better 
for  them  both  physiologically  and  ethically;  and 
that  premature  development  of  the  sex  conscious- 
ness and  the  sex  feelings  is  harmful." 

But  it  also  recognizes  that  the  subject  cannot  be 
banished  from  the  world  of  the  child,  and  that 
there  is  peculiar  danger  that  the  child  will  receive 
sex  information  from  impure  sources.  It  empha- 
sizes the  need  of  very  early  instruction.  Even  as 
regards  social  disease,  it  is  declared  that  "  some 
direction  of  individuals  is  sadly  needed  by  many 
children  in  the  two  or  three  pre-adolescent  years ; 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  every  school  will  finally 
have  one  or  more  competent  persons  (principal, 
nurse,  doctor,  or  teacher)  able  to  deal  effectively 
with  the  individuals  needing  help." 

President  Arthur  H.  Wilde,  of  the  University 
of  Arizona,  declares  that  "  in  all  towns  and  cities 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  239 

many  of  the  children,  even  in  the  best  families, 
have  started  down  even  before  the  age  of  ten. 
A  very  necessary  activity  is  the  study  of  the  chil- 
dren's home  surroundings ;  and  it  is  also  necessary 
to  convince  parents  that  children,  at  an  early  age, 
may  have  wrong  notions  and  incipient  vices." 
And  as  to  smaller  centres  of  population,  Principal 
G.  L.  Bowman,  of  the  Training  School  for  Teach- 
ers, at  Menomonie,  Wisconsin,  affirms  that  much 
damage  is  done  to  boys  at  a  very  early  age  by 
what  he  describes  as  "  the  tramp  woman." 

But  it  is  further  urged  that  the  child  needs  at- 
tention not  merely  during  adolescent  and  pre-ad- 
olescent  years,  but  even  during  infancy.  In  point 
of  fact  it  is  true  that  in  very  many  cases  the  im- 
proper sex  education  which  is  to  shape  the  entire 
moral  life  of  the  individual  is  inadvertently  gained 
in  infancy.  Every  experienced  specialist  could  cite 
cases  of  ineradicable  perversion,  directly  trace- 
able to  influences  to  which  the  child  was  subject 
when  not  more  than  three  or  four  years  of  age. 

Hence  the  pertinency  of  the  admonition  given 
by  Dr.  Balliet  and  his  colleagues  with  reference 
to  the  care  of  the  child  during  this  earliest  period. 

"  The  period  from  one  to  six,"  says  the  report, 
"  is  the  period  preceding  admission  to  school,  and 
is,  therefore,  the  only  period  during  which  the  care 
of  the  child  falls  chiefly  upon  the  mother — the 
kindergarten  at  present  reaching  only  a  small 
proportion  of  children.  It  is,  therefore,  impor- 
tant that  in  lectures  on  sex  education  given  to 
mothers,  special  emphasis  be  laid  upon  this  period, 


240  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

and  that  proper  instruction  be  given  as  to  the  care 
of  the  child's  body.  The  danger  to  the  child  of 
placing  it  in  the  care  of  an  immature  or  inju- 
dicious nurse  should  be  pointed  out.  Instruction 
should  be  given  as  to  how  the  child's  questions 
relating  to  the  origin  of  human  life  may  best  be 
answered.  This  is  the  only  sex  instruction  a  child 
needs  during  this  first  period.  In  addition  to  this, 
watchfulness  over  the  child's  habits,  and  protec- 
tion from  untoward  influences  constitute  the 
mother's  chief  duty." 

But  this  "  watchfulness  over  the  child's  habits," 
implies  far  more  than  most  parents  realize.  As 
Dr.  Morrow  urges,  the  foundations  of  what  may  be 
called  the  sexual  character  are  laid  in  early  youth ; 
and  "  the  ideals  and  principles  instilled  in  this 
formative  period  are  apt  to  determine  the  attitude 
toward  sex  and  the  sex  relation  throughout  life." 

"  Many  parents,"  says  Dr.  Morrow,  "  are  silent 
because  they  fear  to  soil  the  '  crystal  purity  of  the 
youthful  mind  '  with  a  thought  or  suggestion  of 
anything  so  shameful  as  sex.  If  ignorance  were 
a  preservative  of  innocence,  if  their  silence 
shielded  youth  from  sexual  errors,  it  might  be 
justified.  But  there  is  nothing  more  fatuous  than 
the  belief  that  they  succeed.  The  objection  urged 
by  some  that  sex  education  would  stimulate  an  un- 
healthy curiosity,  and  focus  the  imagination  upon 
sexual  matters,  is  scarcely  more  valid.  Curiosity 
about  the  origin  of  life  and  sex  already  exists ;  it 
is  implanted  by  nature.  If  it  is  not  satisfied  from 
pure  sources  it  will  be  fed  from  impure  and  tainted 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  241 

sources.  It  must  be  the  pure  wholesome  education 
of  the  home  or  the  corrupt  teaching  of  the  streets ; 
there  has  been  no  alternative." 


Idealizing  the  Sex-Relation 

It  is  deplorable  that  the  majority  of  parents  are 
but  poorly  qualified  to  give  their  children  specific 
instruction  of  the  right  kind  at  the  later  periods 
of  development. 

It  is  urged  that,  to  meet  this  defect,  systematic 
courses  of  lectures  for  parents  should  be  provided 
at  public  expense.  President  H.  A.  Garfield,  of 
Williams  College,  suggests  that  following  the  lec- 
tures to  parents  only,  it  may  be  well  to  arrange 
a  course  of  lectures  to  parents  accompanied  by 
their  children.  This,  he  declares,  would  tend  to 
establish  mutual  confidence  between  parent  and 
child. 

Until  this  excellent  advice  can  be  generally  put 
into  effect,  it  remains  the  duty  of  the  professional 
educators  to  supply  the  instruction  which  the  aver- 
age home  cannot  give.  The  admirable  suggestions 
as  to  details  of  such  instruction,  which  Dr.  Balliet 
and  his  colleagues  put  forward  with  the  approval 
of  almost  one  hundred  of  the  leading  educators 
of  America,  need  not  be  elaborated  here.  Suffice 
it  that  great  stress  is  laid  on  the  value  of  biological 
training  through  which  the  fundamental  facts  of 
development  are  presented  in  their  broadest  as- 
pects. 

But  it  is  urged  that  the  purely  scientific  instruc- 


242  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

tion  must  be  reinforced  by  ethical  instruction,  both 
direct  and  indirect,  with  due  regard  to  the  matur- 
ity of  those  taught.  "  Appeals  to  the  sense  of 
personal  self-respect  and  purity  and  to  the  instinct 
of  chivalry  can  be  effectively  made  in  the  earliest 
years  of  adolescence,  and  even  before.  With  rela- 
tively mature  students,  the  vast  sociological 
bearings  of  the  subject,  with  their  ethical  implica- 
tions, can  be  effectively  utilized. 

"  Among  the  means  of  indirect  ethical  instruc- 
tion for  this  purpose,  the  most  effective  is  good 
literature.  It  is  of  immense  consequence  that 
during  the  adolescent  years  the  pupils'  minds  be 
saturated  with  the  great  masterpieces,  both  in 
poetry  and  prose,  which  deal  with  romantic  love 
in  its  purest  forms.  Thought  of  sex  emotion  must 
at  this  time  be  spiritualized  and  placed  on  the 
highest  plane,  and  good  literature  is  the  most 
effective  means  to  this  end  which  is  available  in 
the  public  schools.  Any  kind  of  sex  education 
which  ignores  the  education  of  the  emotions  is 
seriously  defective.  Deep  intellectual  interests, 
enthusiasm  in  art,  or  ardent  devotion  to  some 
worthy,  practical  cause,  absorb  the  mind  and  fur- 
nish wholesome  avenues  for  the  expression  of 
the  emotions. 

"  Few  conditions  are  so  dangerous  at  this 
period  as  idleness,  whether  physical  or  mental, 
and  an  absence  of  interest  in  things  which  appeal 
to  the  higher  altruistic  instincts." 

Yet  another  aspect  of  sex  education  is  recog- 
nized in  this  declaration :  * '  The  value  of  physical 


Give  Your  Children  a  Chance  243 

exercise,  especially  in  the  form  of  play  and  ath- 
letic sport,  in  its  bearing  on  the  control  of  the  sex 
instinct,  is  so  generally  recognized  that  it  needs 
no  special  emphasis  here." 

To  parents  who,  under  spell  of  the  old  ideas,  are 
disposed  to  question  the  advisability  of  attempt- 
ing to  break  down  the  barriers  of  reticence  that 
have  hitherto  surrounded  this  subject,  the  con- 
cluding paragraph  of  Dean  Balliet's  report  may 
be  especially  commended  : 

"  In  conclusion,  your  Committee  would  empha- 
size the  necessity  of  good  judgment  and  tact  in 
introducing  sex  instruction  into  schools.  It  should 
not  be  introduced  prematurely,  but  only  so  fast 
as  teachers  can  be  found  or  trained  who  are  compe- 
tent to  give  it,  and  so  fast  as  public  sentiment  will 
support  it.  On  the  other  hand,  undue  weight  must 
not  be  given  to  the  difficulties  attending  such  in- 
struction even  under  present  conditions,  inasmuch 
as  even  occasional  mistakes  will  do  far  less  harm 
than  allowing  children  to  continue  to  gain  this 
knowledge,  as  many  of  them  now  do,  from  impure 
sources — receiving  a  pernicious  first  impression 
which  induces  in  them  an  attitude  of  mind  toward 
the  subject  that  makes  it  extremely  difficult  later 
to  give  them  the  best  instruction.  In  not  a  few 
such  cases  sound  teaching  is  practically  fruitless." 

And  this  may  be  supplemented  by  an  expression 
made  by  Professor  Bigelow,  in  another  connection, 
where  he  says : 

11  Now  unless  we  can  devise  some  way  to 
counteract  the  prevailing  narrow,  vulgar,  disre- 


244  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

spectful,  and  irreverent  attitude  towards  all 
aspects  of  sex  and  reproduction;  unless  we  can 
make  people  see  sexual  processes  in  all  their  nor- 
mal aspects  as  noble,  beautiful,  and  splendid  steps 
in  the  great  plan  of  nature ;  unless  we  can  substi- 
tute a  philosophical  and  esthetic  view  of  sex 
relationship  for  the  time-worn  interpretation  of 
everything  sexual  as  inherently  vulgar,  base,  ig- 
noble, and  demanding  asceticism  for  those  who 
would  reach  the  highest  spiritual  development; 
unless  we  can  begin  to  make  these  changes  in  the 
prevailing  attitude  towards  sex  and  reproduction, 
we  cannot  make  any  decided  advance  in  the 
attempt  to  help  solve  sex  problems  by  special 
instruction." 

"  I  cannot  believe,"  Professor  Bigelow  con- 
cludes, "  that  sex  education  is  one  of  the  long  line 
of  educational  fads  which  quickly  pass  their  day, 
for  no  other  phase  of  education  so  closely  touches 
life.  History  and  geography  and  even  a  large 
part  of  the  three  R's  may  be  of  little  use  in  the 
lives  of  numerous  people,  but  sex  education  deals 
with  problems  which  the  normal  human  life  can- 
not possibly  avoid  and  which  each  individual  must 
be  prepared  to  solve  for  himself.  Therefore,  we 
may  confidently  assert  that  scientific  instruction 
concerning  the  most  important  aspects  of  sex 
processes  and  relationships  has  come  to  stay,  and 
that  it  will  soon  be  recognized  as  an  absolutely 
necessary  part  of  a  rational  and  efficient  scheme 
for  the  education  of  young  people." 


IX 

Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

TPVO  you  know  how  old  you  are? 
**^  The  question  sounds  absurd  but  is  not.  Of 
course  you  know  when  you  were  born ;  but  are  you 
sure  you  know  how  fast  you  have  lived?  Age  is 
not  measured  solely  by  birthdays.  It  is  far  more 
surely  measured  by  the  state  of  your  arteries. 
These  may  be  elastic  and  resilient,  in  which  case 
you  are  young,  whatever  your  years ;  or  they  may 
be  hard  and  brittle,  in  which  case  you  are  old,  how- 
ever short  the  time  since  you  were  born. 

You  may  in  reality  be  thirty-five  or  forty  years 
old,  while  your  neighbor  is  properly  to  be  spoken 
of  as  seventy  or  seventy-five  years  young. 

The  difference  is  that  your  neighbor  has  learned 
the  secret  of  right  living,  whereas  you,  if  old  at 
forty,  are  probably  poisoning  yourself  daily  with 
the  food  that  you  eat. 

Perhaps  you  are  not  even  aware  that  common 
foods  may  become  poisonous  to  you  under  certain 
conditions.  Quite  possibly  you  have  no  clear  no- 
tion as  to  the  precise  quantities  of  meat  and  other 
foods  that  your  system  requires  day  by  day.  Yet, 
if  you  eat  too  much  nitrogenous  food,  the  bad  ef- 
fects will  make  themselves  felt  on  your  arteries, 

245 


246  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

and  you  will  age  in  reality  by  two  or  three  years 
with  each  successive  birthday. 

Proteid  (meat)  poisoning  makes  brittle  arteries; 
and  a  man  with  brittle  arteries  has  the  sword  of 
Damocles  hanging  with  perpetual  menace  over 
his  head. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  are  thus  men- 
aced, as  the  death  rolls  from  "  apoplexy,"  "  heart 
failure,"  "  paralysis,"  and  sundry  diseases  of 
liver  and  kidneys  prove  day  by  day. 

Do  you  know  whether  you  are  thus  menaced  ?  If 
not,  it  is  worth  your  while  to  find  out. 

The  alarming  prevalence  of  this  condition  of 
arterial  degeneration  gives  peculiar  importance 
to  a  report  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Paris  Academy 
of  Medicine  last  May  by  Professor  Letulle.  The 
report  concerns  the  remarkable  work  done  there 
in  recent  months  by  Dr.  Moutier  in  the  way  of 
treatment  of  diseases  of  the  arterial  system  with 
the  high-frequency  electric  current.  It  was  re- 
ported that  Dr.  Moutier  has  succeeded  in  a  large 
number  of  cases  in  restoring  diseased  arteries  to 
a  normal  condition,  thus  giving  a  normal  blood 
supply  to  the  tissues. 

Every  organ  of  the  body  may  suffer  from  dis- 
eased conditions  of  the  arteries;  which  explains 
the  report  that  the  new  treatment  has  been  applied 
to  the  amelioration  of  a  multitude  of  disorders 
affecting  not  merely  the  heart  and  vascular  mech- 
anism in  general  but  various  abdominal  organs,  in- 
cluding the  liver  and  the  kidneys. 

It  is  highly  interesting  to  add  that  almost  simul- 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  247 

taneously  the  report  comes  from  Berlin  that  Dr. 
Saubermann  has  accomplished  similar  results  by 
treating  diseased  arteries  with  radium. 

These  discoveries  deal  with  a  subject  of  pro- 
found importance.  In  1910  more  than  100,000 
persons  died  in  the  United  States  from  diseases 
of  the  circulatory  apparatus.  The  aggregate  death 
roll  of  typhoid  fever,  malaria,  smallpox,  measles, 
scarlet  fever,  whooping-cough,  diphtheria,  influ- 
enza, and  several  minor  bacterial  diseases  was  only 
59,000. 

Thus  the  diseases  of  the  heart  and  blood  vessels 
were  directly  responsible  for  almost  twice  as  many 
deaths  as  were  due  to  an  entire  coterie  of  much- 
dreaded  contagious  diseases. 

We  hear  on  all  sides  an  outcry  against  the  great 
white  plague,  and  the  whole  world  is  eagerly 
awaiting  the  discovery  of  a  cure  for  cancer.  Yet 
tuberculosis  causes  the  death  of  only  160  persons 
per  100,000  of  the  population,  and  cancer  and  other 
malignant  tumors  claim  only  76,  as  against  185 
who  fall  victim  to  diseases  of  the  circulatory 
system. 

Moreover,  there  are  many  degenerative  mala- 
dies affecting  other  vital  organs  that  are  inaugu- 
rated by  or  dependent  upon  disturbances  of  the 
blood  supply;  and  these  degenerative  diseases 
affecting  the  heart,  blood  vessels,  kidneys,  and 
other  vital  organs  are  very  actively  on  the  in- 
crease. It  is  computed  that  the  death-rate  from 
this  class  of  diseases  per  100,000  of  the  population 
was  190  in  1880,  that  it  advanced  to  243  in  1890, 


248  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

to  314  in  1900,  and  to  387  in  1908;  thus  more  than 
doubling  in  the  course  of  a  single  generation. 

This  explains  why  the  life  insurance  examiner 
nowadays  pays  such  exceptional  attention  to  the 
state  of  your  heart  and  kidneys.  He  knows  that 
there  is  more  than  an  even  chance  that  you  are 
not  altogether  normal  as  regards  these  vitally  im- 
portant organs. 

It  appears,  then,  that  while  medical  science  has 
been  combating  the  microbes  and  decreasing  infant 
mortality,  it  has  tended  to  overlook  the  average 
middle-aged  person.  He  is  dying  in  larger  and 
larger  numbers  of  degenerative  diseases.  A  re- 
cent report  of  the  Department  of  Health  shows 
that  the  "  expectancy  "  of  life  after  forty  has 
diminished  by  fifteen  years  for  males  and  by 
eighteen  for  females  within  the  present  genera- 
tion. Your  father  and  mother,  at  forty,  had  a  far 
better  prospect  of  living  to  a  green  old  age  than 
you  have  to-day.  And  the  alarming  change  is 
closely  connected  with  errors  of  diet  that  lead  to 
degenerative  changes  of  the  arteries;  changes 
which  have  hitherto  been  considered  incurable,  but 
which,  according  to  the  reports  from  Paris  and 
Berlin,  may  now  be  brought  within  the  scope  of 
remedial  treatment. 

But  while  great  interest  and  importance  thus 
attach  to  the  possible  restoration  to  the  normal 
of  arteries  that  have  become  diseased,  it  should 
go  without  saying,  in  this  age  of  preventive  medi- 
cine, that  a  still  greater  importance  attaches  to  the 
question :  How  can  we  prevent  the  arteries  from 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  249 

becoming  diseased  ?  Here  as  elsewhere  prevention 
is  far  better  than  cure. 

And  it  fortunately  happens  that  these  maladies 
are  pre-eminently  preventable. 

In  the  main  they  are  brought  on  by  habits  of  life 
that  might  readily  be  changed.  It  is  scarcely  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  the  great  bulk  of  the 
100,000  people  who  die  prematurely  each  year  in 
this  country  of  diseases  of  the  vascular  system 
have  been  so  directly  responsible  for  shortening 
their  own  lives  that  they  might  not  inappropri- 
ately be  described  as  involuntary  suicides. 

It  should  be  of  interest  to  you  and  me  to  inquire 
whether  we,  individually,  are  likely  to  add  our 
names  to  the  list. 

Poisons  in  Our  Daily  Meat 

One  of  the  most  striking  conclusions  to  which 
recent  investigators  have  come  is  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  people  who  have  reached  middle  life 
have  acquired  habits  of  eating  that  are  directly 
injurious,  and  that  subject  their  systems  to  a  slow 
poisoning  that  in  effect  hastens  old  age  and  ulti- 
mately brings  death  itself. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  the  statement  that  most 
people  eat  too  much.  But  the  new  investigators 
go  beyond  this  and  point  out  the  precise  kinds  of 
food  that  produce  particular  types  of  injury.  They 
tell  us  that  a  great  number  of  persons  who  have 
passed  middle  life  have  accustomed  themselves  to 
a  diet  that  includes  an  excess  of  proteids, — that  is 


250  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

to  say,  of  foods  that  contain  nitrogen,  of  which 
prominent  examples  are  eggs  and  all  kinds  of 
meats. 

"  Protein,"  says  Dr.  L.  F.  Bishop  of  New  York, 
"  is  very  important  in  building  up  the  tissues, 
strengthening  the  muscles,  and  stimulating  the 
activity  of  the  brain  and  the  emotions.  It  is  the 
food  that  produces  great  leaders  and  brain  work- 
ers, but  it  is  also  a  food  that  in  the  present  day  is 
terminating  prematurely  some  of  the  best  lives  in 
the  nation." 

The  specific  explanation  given  by  Dr.  Bishop  of 
this  rather  alarming  statement  is  based  on  a  long 
series  of  observations  in  which  laboratory  work 
has  joined  hands  with  clinical  experience.  This 
work  has  to  do  with  a  condition  of  the  organism 
which  the  specialist  terms  *  *  anaphylaxis. ' '  Stated 
untechnically,  this  means  a  curious  susceptibility 
to  a  particular  food  or  medicine.  Such  so-called 
idiosyncrasies  have  been  known  in  a  general  way 
from  the  earliest  times.  It.  is  traditional  that 
"  what  is  one  man's  food  is  another's  poison." 
But  the  scientific  investigation  of  the  matter  is 
altogether  modern.  A  pioneer  in  the  field  is  Pro- 
fessor Victor  C.  Vaughan,  who  tells  in  a  recent 
number  of  The  American  Journal  of  Medical  Sci- 
ence of  some  curious  instances  in  which  ordinary 
foods  may  become  poisons  to  particular  indi- 
viduals. 

For  example,  an  individual  may  become  sus- 
ceptible to  the  poisonous  properties  of  the  protein 
of  egg  or  of  fish,  or  of  beef  or  mutton.  The  in- 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  251 

dividual  in  whose  system  this  undue  sensitiveness 
has  developed  may  be  quite  unconscious  of  his 
infirmity.  Indeed,  the  food  that  particularly  poi- 
sons him  may  be  one  of  which  he  is  especially  fond. 
So  he  continues  to  take  it  in  large  quantities  and 
is  steadily  and  persistently  poisoned.  The  effects 
are  not  immediately  obvious  in  a  marked  degree, 
but  the  cumulative  result  is  finally  apparent  in  the 
degeneration  of  many  tissues,  leading  ultimately 
to  a  marked  disturbance  of  function  of  such  all  es- 
sential organs  as  the  heart  and  vascular  system, 
the  liver,  and  the  kidneys. 

It  is  this  that  Dr.  Bishop  has  in  mind  when  he 
assures  us  that  slow  poisoning  by  protein  accounts 
for  a  very  large  number  of  deaths.  He  believes 
that  the  typical  malady  of  middle  life  known  as 
arterio-scelerosis,  or  hardening  of  the  arteries,  is 
due  to  systematic  poisoning  from  the  habitual  in- 
gestion  of  foods  to  which  the  particular  individual 
has  become  unduly  sensitized.  In  his  judgment 
there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people,  mostly 
above  the  age  of  forty,  who  are  daily  jeopardizing 
their  health  and  inducing  premature  senility  with 
ultimate  shortening  of  life. 

These  facts  should  be  known  to  and  pondered 
by  every  individual  who  has  reached  middle  life. 
But  how,  practically  speaking,  may  you  and  I 
know  whether  we  are  poisoning  ourselves?  In  or- 
der to  answer  that  question  we  must  get  a  clear 
idea  of  the  conditions  under  which  that  strangest 
of  mechanisms,  our  own  body,  operates  in  health 
and  in  disease. 


252  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

The  Animal  Machine 

It  is  only  in  comparatively  recent  times  that  we 
have  come  to  understand  that  the  bodily  mechan- 
ism is  a  machine  subject  to  laws  that  apply  to  all 
types  of  machinery. 

It  is  a  mechanism  that  cannot  work  without  ex- 
hausting or  transforming  energy.  Even  when  the 
body  is  at  rest  there  is  still  constant  loss  of  energy 
through  the  giving  off  of  heat.  It  has  become  cus- 
tomary to  think  of  the  animal  machine  as  a  heat 
engine  and  to  measure  its  activities  in  terms  of  so- 
called  calories ;  a  calory  being  the  amount  of  heat 
required  to  raise  a  kilogram  of  water  (a  little  over 
a  quart)  by  one  degree  Centigrade.  The  aggre- 
gate amount  of  energy  utilized  by  the  human  body 
in  a  day  may  vary,  according  to  the  size  of  the 
individual  and  degree  of  activity,  from  2,000  to 
8,000  or  even  10,000  calories. 

The  materials  oxidized  or  burned  in  the  body  to 
generate  this  energy  are  supplied  by  the  food. 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  consider  what  a  marvel  it 
is  that  your  body  is  able  to  conserve  heat  when 
heat  is  needed  and  eliminate  an  over-supply,  using 
always  just  the  right  amount  of  fuel  and  keeping 
in  perfect  running  order  if  given  half  a  chance  I 

You  are  out  in  the  open  on  a  winter  day,  drawing 
deep  breaths  of  air  at  a  temperature,  say,  10  de- 
grees below  zero.  Every  inhalation  draws  frigid 
air  into  your  lungs,  and  each  exhalation  carries 
from  your  body  a  modicum  of  heat.  But  your 
bodily  heat-engine  burns  fuel  with  such  nice  ad- 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  253 

justment  to  your  needs  that  your  temperature  re- 
mains hour  after  hour  at  98.4  degrees  Fahrenheit. 

Six  months  later  you  are  walking  under  a  tropic 
sun,  the  thermometer  registers  perhaps  90  degrees 
in  the  shade,  and  the  air  you  breathe  seems  to  come 
from  a  furnace.  But  your  bodily  temperature  now 
as  before  is  98.4  Fahrenheit. 

If  you  suddenly  jump  about  or  run  briskly,  you 
in  effect  put  a  bellows  to  the  bodily  furnace.  Your 
heart  beats  faster;  your  breath  comes  in  gasps; 
and  judging  by  your  own  feelings  you  have  made 
your  blood  almost  boil.  But  meantime  the  blood 
vessels  lying  at  the  surface  of  your  body  have  re- 
laxed, and  the  blood  thus  brought  to  the  surface 
radiates  heat  into  the  surrounding  space,  and  thus 
cools  your  body  as  a  whole  in  spite  of  your  feeling 
of  warmth ;  and  this  cooling  is  greatly  aided  by  the 
perspiratory  glands  with  which  your  skin  is  thickly 
provided,  which  now  ooze  water,  exuded  from  the 
blood,  which  in  evaporating  takes  up  a  relatively 
enormous  amount  of  heat. 

The  skin  thus  performs  for  the  body  the  service 
done  by  the  water-jacket  in  an  automobile  engine. 

But  it  ie  obviously  essential  for  the  proper  work- 
ing of  this  wonderful  heat  regulator  that  the  blood 
vessels  should  be  elastic  and  resilient,  responsive 
to  the  mandates  of  the  nervous  mechanism.  Nor 
can  we  expect  ideal  conditions  if  the  body  is  con- 
stantly called  upon  to  consume  a  needless  supply 
of  fuel  and  thus  to  generate  an  undue  quantity  of 
heat.  Under  such  circumstances,  the  excretory 
channels  become  clogged  with  waste  products,  just 


254  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

as  the  carburetor  and  cylinder  of  a  gasoline  motor 
become  clogged  if  too  much  gas  is  supplied  or  an 
improper  admixture  of  gas  and  air. 

You  are  well  aware  that  your  automobile  engine 
will  not  work  without  proper  fuel.  Neither  will 
your  bodily  engine. 

The  automobile  mechanism  quickly  wears  out 
and  becomes  ineffective  if  the  conditions  essential 
to  its  well-being  are  not  maintained.  So  does  the 
bodily  mechanism. 

If  you  are  wise  you  will  take  at  least  as  good 
care  of  your  bodily  machine  as  you  do  of  your 
gasoline  motor.  You  can  buy  another  automobile 
if  your  present  one  wears  out;  but  you  have  the 
use  of  only  one  body  in  this  life,  and  no  opportu- 
nity will  ever  be  given  you  "to  do  better  next 
time." 

Fuel  for  the  Bodily  Engine 

Let  us  ask,  then,  a  little  more  specifically,  just 
how  it  may  be  known  whether  you,  individually, 
are  supplying  your  bodily  machine  with  the  right 
kind  and  right  quantities  of  fuel. 

The  chemists  tell  us  that  notwithstanding  the 
great  variety  of  foodstuffs,  they  may  all  be  classi- 
fied under  three  headings.  Foods  are  either  pro- 
teins, or  fats,  or  carbohydrates.  Fats  and  carbo- 
hydrates consist  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen ; 
protein  contains  the  same  elements  with  the  ad- 
dition of  nitrogen. 

The  familiar  carbohydrates  are  starches  and 
sugars  in  their  various  combinations. 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  255 

The  proteins  are  supplied  by  meats  of  all  kinds, 
and  by  milk,  cheese,  and  eggs.  There  is  also  pro- 
tein in  bread,  and  a  relatively  high  percentage  in 
leguminous  vegetables  such  as  beans  and  peas. 

All  three  classes  of  food  products  supply  fuel 
to  be  oxidized  or  burned  in  the  system.  But  there 
is  a  very  radical  additional  function  subserved  by 
the  proteids,  or  nitrogenous  foods.  These  supply 
nitrogen  to  take  the  place  of  that  which  is  con- 
stantly set  free  in  the  action  of  muscular  tissue 
and  eliminated  from  the  body.  The  bodily  ma- 
chine immediately  begins  to  run  down  if  the  nitro- 
gen-bearing proteids  are  withheld  or  the  supply  is 
insufficient  in  quantity,  and  no  amount  of  fats  or 
of  carbohydrates  can  make  up  the  deficiency. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  as  we  have  seen,  the  same 
proteins  if  supplied  in  excess  or  of  improper  qual- 
ity may  be  the  undoing  of  the  bodily  mechanism. 
So  here  we  are  placed  between  the  devil  of  too 
little  nitrogen  and  the  deep  sea  of  too  much.  We 
cannot  live  without  the  nitrogen,  and  if  we  are 
not  careful  we  shall  find  that  we  cannot  live  with 
it.  Obviously,  the  situation  demands  a  compro- 
mise. 

What  Meat  Is  Your  Poison? 

The  practical  solution  is  found  in  the  facts  that 
(1)  we  know  how  much  proteid  matter  the  organ- 
ism requires  in  a  day,  and  (2)  we  know  that  cer- 
tain classes  of  proteids  are  under  suspicion  as 
producers  of  degenerative  changes  of  the  blood 
vessels  and  vital  organs.  Your  individual  task, 


256  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

then,  is  to  make  sure  that  your  dietary  includes 
proteids  in  adequate  quantity  (but  not  greatly  in 
excess)  and  that  deleterious  proteids  are  excluded. 

You  perhaps  suffer  now  and  again  from  head- 
aches and  neuralgias.  You  may  be  rheumatic  or 
gouty.  You  are  subject  to  attacks  of  biliousness ; 
are  easily  fatigued;  lack  energy  and  initiation  of 
mind  and  body;  find  yourself  short  of  breath  on 
walking  briskly  or  on  going  upstairs.  At  times 
your  heart  palpitates  unduly. 

These  are  all  symptoms  that  suggest  disturbed 
assimilation. 

The  first  question  to  ask  yourself  is  this:  Is 
there  any  food  that  I  am  accustomed  to  take  habit- 
ually that  is  poisonous  to  me?  It  is  quite  possible, 
according  to  the  newest  theories  above  outlined, 
that  your  regular  diet  may  include  something  that 
to  you  individually  is  toxic,  yet  which  is  altogether 
wholesome  to  people  in  general  and  even  to  mem- 
bers of  your  own  family. 

The  obvious  way  to  test  the  matter,  if  you  have 
any  doubt  at  all  on  the  subject,  is  to  cut  out  one 
or  more  of  these  questionable  foods  from  your 
dietary  for  a  given  period,  and  note  the  results. 
The  proteids  that  are  most  under  suspicion  are 
those  contained  in  the  animal  albumens — meats  of 
all  kinds,  including  fish,  and  eggs — and  in  such 
leguminous  vegetables  as  peas  and  beans ;  and  the 
uric-acid  forming  constituents  of  tea  and  coffee. 
In  making  a  radical  test,  all  these  should  be 
avoided. 

It  is  unquestionable,  however,  that  you  may  be 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  257 

suffering  from  a  slow  poisoning  due  to  deleterious 
food  without  experiencing  any  symptoms  that  you 
associate  directly  with  your  diet.  Your  arteries 
may  be  gradually  hardening  week  by  week,  with- 
out producing  any  sensation  that  arouses  your 
suspicion.  About  the  only  way  to  put  the  matter 
to  a  crucial  test  is  to  go  to  your  physician  and 
have  him  measure  your  blood  pressure.  It  is  now 
recognized  that  increased  blood  pressure  is  one  of 
the  earliest  symptoms  of  proteid  poisoning. 

The  physician  is  provided  with  several  appli- 
ances by  which  the  pressure  may  be  tested,  and  is 
able  to  offer  timely  warning  to  many  a  middle- 
aged  person  who  supposed  himself  to  be  in  fairly 
good  health,  or  who  as  yet  has  only  vague  premo- 
nitions of  his  malady. 

What  the  Blood  Pressure  Shows 

Altered  blood  pressure  may  be  due  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  heart  itself  or  to  changed  resiliency 
of  the  arteries  and  capillaries  through  which  the 
blood  courses. 

But  recent  studies  strongly  suggest  that  the 
initial  condition  in  a  great  number  of  cases — per- 
haps in  all  cases — is  an  abnormality  of  the  blood 
itself.  Recent  experiments  tend  to  confirm  the 
claims  of  the  London  specialist,  Dr.  Alexander 
Haig,  that  where  high  blood  pressure  is  found,  the 
blood  is  always  unduly  viscous  and  tends  to  be- 
come clogged  at  the  minute  apertures  of  the  capil- 
laries. The  famous  English  physician,  Sir  Lauder 


258  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Brunton,  recently  reported  a  case  in  which  there 
was  such  viscosity  that  scarcely  any  blood  flowed 
even  when  a  vein  was  opened. 

The  thickening  of  the  blood  which  thus  disturbs 
the  circulation,  and  which  is  premonitory  of  dis- 
aster, may  be  due  to  the  ingestion  of  unwholesome 
foods  or  merely  to  the  ingestion  of  an  excessive 
quantity  of  wholesome  ones.  Thousands  of  men 
and  women  of  sedentary  habits  have  accustomed 
themselves  to  a  daily  regimen,  including  some  such 
combination  of  proteids  as  the  following:  At 
breakfast,  two  eggs  and  a  slice  or  two  of  bacon; 
at  lunch,  a  cup  of  bouillon,  mutton  chops  or  a  slice 
of  beef,  green  peas,  and  a  portion  of  cheese;  at 
dinner,  a  long  series  of  proteids,  including  oysters 
or  clams,  soup,  fish,  fowl,  and  a  red  meat. 

Such  a  dietary  is  utterly  abnormal  and  must 
inevitably  lead  to  disaster. 

No  one  but  a  laboring  man  or  an  athlete  in  full 
training  could  with  impunity  eat  regularly  even 
small  portions  of  such  a  variety  of  proteids.  And 
no  wisely  trained  athlete  would  think  of  under- 
taking such  a  feat.  The  most  powerful  athletes 
that  I  have  personally  examined  eat  meat  only 
once  a  day,  and  a  good  many  of  them  habitually 
take  but  two  meals,  breakfast  comprising  a  roll  and 
one  egg  or  at  most  two,  and  dinner  having  for  its 
chief  proteid  never  more  than  a  single  kind  of 
meat,  and  a  moderate  portion  of  that. 

Such  is  the  custom,  for  example,  of  George  Both- 
ner,  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  athlete  of  our 
generation,  who  at  46  is  boyish  in  face  and  figure 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  259 

and  who,  after  holding  the  world  championship  for 
more  than  ten  years,  is  still  invincible  to  any 
wrestler  of  his  own  weight. 

Eating  to  Live 

If  your  habits  are  sedentary,  you  obviously  re- 
quire less  food  than  the  athlete  in  training. 

So  it  is  more  than  likely  that  you  eat  not  merely 
more  protein  but  a  great  deal  more  food  of  every 
kind  than  is  good  for  you.  Not  unlikely  you  con- 
sume daily  twice  as  much  food  as  your  bodily  ma- 
chine can  advantageously  manage. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  man  of  average  size  who 
does  little  physical  work  requires  not  more  than 
50  to  60  grams  of  protein, — say  about  two  ounces. 
We  may  gain  a  clear  idea  as  to  the  amount  of  food 
that  will  provide  this  if  we  note  the  following  esti- 
mate made  by  Dr.  Bishop : 

' '  Roughly  speaking,  but  with  sufficient  accuracy 
for  practical  purposes,"  he  says,  "  an  average 
helping  of  meat  contains  25  grams  of  protein,  or  to 
be  more  accurate,  a  cubic  inch  of  beefsteak,  beef, 
or  fish  contains  8  grams ;  an  egg  contains  8  grams, 
as  does  also  a  glass  of  milk.  An  ordinary  helping 
of  rice,  potatoes,  bread,  or  hominy  contains  about 
4  grams  of  protein." 

If,  then,  you  were  to  take  two  eggs  for  break- 
fast, a  glass  of  milk  or  a  cup  of  bouillon  at  lunch, 
and  a  moderate  helping  of  beef  (say  a  piece  of 
steak  three  inches  long  and  one  inch  thick)  at  din- 
ner, you  have  consumed  a  quantity  of  protein  ade- 


260  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

quate  for  the  day's  needs.  And  this  without  at  all 
taking  into  consideration  the  protein  contained  in 
the  bread,  potatoes,  rice,  beans,  peas,  pudding,  and 
soup  that  have  rounded  out  your  meals  for  that 
day. 

Obviously  you  are  a  very  moderate  eater  indeed 
if  you  do  not  ingest  an  excessive  quantity  of  pro- 
tein. 

As  to  the  total  food  supply  measured  in  heat 
units,  it  is  estimated  that  a  man  doing  light  work 
requires  about  sixteen  calories  '  of  energy  per 
pound  of  weight.  A  man  weighing  170  pounds 
would  therefore  require  about  2,500  calories.  It 
is  further  computed  that  each  ounce  of  proteid 
food  supplies  the  body  about  113  calories ;  and  an 
ounce  of  carbohydrates  also  supplies  113  calories ; 
and  an  ounce  of  fat  about  255  calories.  So  a 
dietary  comprising  about  2l/>  ounces  of  proteids, 
and  similar  quantities  of  fats,  and  14  ounces  of 
carbohydrates  would  supply  the  daily  needs  of  a 
man  weighing  170  pounds. 

This  is  less  than  114  pounds  of  digestible  mat- 
ter. But  of  course  there  is  an  unavailable  resi- 
due in  most  foods,  so  the  actual  quantity  ingested 
would  be  considerably  larger.  An  average  day's 
supply  of  food  for  a  man  of  170  pounds  might  be 
apportioned  as  follows :  To  supply  proteids,  one 
egg,  one  pint  of  milk,  one  ounce  of  cheese,  6  ounces 
of  meat  (weighed  before  cooking) ;  to  supply  fats, 
2  ounces  of  butter  (plus  a  certain  amount  of  fats 
in  the  other  articles  of  diet) ;  to  supply  carbohy- 
drates, 8  ounces  of  bread  or  equivalent  bread 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  261 

stuffs,  4  ounces  each  of  potatoes,  spinach,  and 
tapioca,  and  2  ounces  of  sugar.  This  represents 
an  adequate  fuel  supply  for  a  good-sized  man  of 
fairly  active  physical  habits. 

By  experimenting  a  little  with  a  pair  of  scales, 
you  may  quickly  satisfy  yourself  as  to  whether  or 
not  your  own  dietary  represents  a  reasonable  fuel 
supply,  or  whether,  as  is  probable,  you  are  accus- 
tomed to  take  an  amount  of  food  a  good  deal  in 
excess  of  your  requirements.  In  the  latter  case, 
you  will  do  well  to  recall  that  an  excess  of  fuel 
must  tend  to  clog  the  working  of  the  bodily  ma- 
chine, bringing  an  undue  strain  upon  the  digestive 
and  circulatory  systems,  thickening  the  blood,  and 
overtaxing  those  all-important  excretory  organs, 
the  kidneys. 

Also  you  may  quite  likely  have  observed  that  a 
certain  amount  of  the  excess  fuel  tends  to  be 
stored  away  as  adipose  tissue,  which  becomes 
presently  a  serious  encumbrance. 

You  must  squarely  face  the  question  whether 
you  will  live  to  eat,  pampering  your  appetite  and 
risking  the  consequences,  or  whether  you  will  eat 
to  live,  making  a  rational  selection  of  food,  and 
exercising  a  wise  restraint  as  to  the  quantity  in- 
gested. 

If  you  find  it  difficult  to  resist  the  allurements 
of  the  table,  the  classical  experiment  of  Professor 
Chittenden  of  Yale  may  helpfully  be  recalled.  In 
his  personal  experience,  not  only  did  rheumatism, 
"  sick  headache,"  and  biliousness  disappear  when 
a  carefully  computed  restricted  diet  was  adhered 


262  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

to,  but  "  there  was  a  greater  appreciation  of  such 
food  as  was  eaten,  a  keener  appetite  and  more 
acute  taste  seemed  to  be  developed,  with  a  more 
thorough  liking  for  simple  foods." 

So  adherence  to  a  rational  dietary  by  no  means 
implies  the  renunciation  of  all  pleasure  in  eating. 


Exercise  the  Sovereign  Remedy 

But  however  abstemious  your  diet,  you  cannot 
hope  to  keep  your  bodily  machine  in  good  working 
order  unless  you  give  some  attention  to  the  ob- 
verse side  of  the  question  of  digestion  and  nu- 
trition ;  that  is  to  say,  to  the  matter  of  bodily  exer- 
cise. No  discussion  of  longevity  would  be  in  any 
sense  complete  that  left  this  out  of  consideration. 

The  case  of  the  athlete  who  retains  the  resiliency 
and  strength  of  youth  at  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  age 
— to  say  nothing  of  a  Weston  who  walks  across  the 
Continent  at  seventy-two — conveys  a  double  les- 
son. Not  only  has  such  a  person  been  rationally 
abstemious  in  his  diet,  but  he  has  aided  nature  in 
maintaining  a  healthy  condition  of  his  bodily 
mechanism  by  giving  all  portions  of  that  mech- 
anism an  opportunity  to  functionate  normally. 
Which  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  he  has 
habitually  exercised  his  muscles. 

In  so  doing  he  has  given  tone  to  his  heart  and 
arteries  by  stimulating  a  normal  circulation  of  the 
blood,  and  at  the  same  time  has  facilitated  the 
elimination  of  waste  products. 

Thus  at  sixty  he  may  have  an  organism  which, 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  263 

judged  by  the  condition  of  its  vital  tissues,  is  no 
nearer  the  final  breakdown — no  older,  to  use  the 
conventional  phrasing — than  the  system  of  the 
average  gourmand  of  sedentary  habits  who,  by 
count  of  birthdays,  is  twenty  years  younger. 

Action  of  the  muscles  results  in  a  more  rapid 
metabolism  of  the  tissues,  accompanied  by  an  in- 
creased burning  of  fuel.  The  contracting  muscles 
directly  promote  the  flow  of  the  blood-stream  in 
the  veins  and  in  the  capillaries,  thus  tending  to 
lower  the  arterial  pressure.  With  bettered  circu- 
lation, the  perspiratory  glands  become  active,  and 
some  of  the  products  of  combustion  are  eliminated 
by  way  of  the  skin.  If  your  kidneys  are  not  able 
to  handle  the  waste  products  of  the  body  with  facil- 
ity, this  is  highly  important. 

Of  course  games  and  sports  that  develop  an  in- 
terest are  in  every  way  better  than  mere  per- 
functory exercises. 

Tennis,  golf,  baseball,  hockey,  and  basket-ball 
are  excellent,  each  in  its  own  way.  So  are  rowing, 
swimming,  and  riding.  In  default  of  anything 
better,  brisk  walking  will  serve  a  useful  purpose; 
while  mountain  climbing  for  those  whose  hearts 
are  in  good  order  has  many  advantages. 

The  indoor  games  that  afford  the  best  all-round 
exercise  are  handball  and  court  tennis.  Wrestling, 
boxing,  fencing,  and  bowling  are  all-round  devel- 
opers of  muscle  that  partake  also  of  the  elements 
of  recreation,  and  in  a  less  degree  the  same  thing 
is  true  of  '  *  punching  the  bag  ' '  and  throwing  the 
* '  medicine  ball. ' '  Perhaps  no  single  form  of  gym- 


264  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

nasium  sport  combines  so  many  advantages  for 
persons  past  middle  age  as  the  game  of  handball. 
This  gives  vigorous  exercise  without  inducing  un- 
due strain,  and  it  brings  into  play  every  muscle 
in  the  body. 

For  persons  in  good  condition,  wrestling  is  an 
almost  incomparable  exercise;  but  it  should  only 
be  undertaken  as  the  sequel  of  a  course  of  lighter 
training. 

Whatever  the  form  of  exercise,  it  should  be  pur- 
sued with  sufficient  vigor  to  stimulate  the  heart's 
action,  ensure  deep  breathing,  and  so  increase  the 
heat-producing  activities  of  the  tissues  that  the 
blood  will  be  brought  to  the  surface,  the  skin  made 
to  glow,  and  the  perspiratory  glands  stimulated  to 
free  action.  The  latter  effect  may  be  further  fa- 
cilitated by  a  few  minutes  in  a  hot  room  or  the 
equivalent,  the  "  Turkish  bath  cabinet  ";  this  to 
be  followed  with  a  shower  bath,  warm  at  first  but 
toned  gradually  to  the  coldest  degree  from  which 
the  body  will  react. 

The  cold  shower  is  doubly  important  because  it 
not  only  closes  the  pores  of  the  skin  and  obviates 
the  danger  of  taking  cold,  but  also  acts  as  a  gen- 
eral systemic  tonic  which  has  definite  and  last- 
ing benefit. 

If  you  have  access  to  a  gymnasium  and  will  take 
a  half-hour  daily  for  such  a  routine  of  exercises, 
you  may  overcome  the  effects  of  improper  diet,  and 
prevent  the  deterioration  of  your  heart  and  arte- 
ries with  a  fair  degree  of  certainty. 

But  unfortunately  our  modern  civilization  has 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  265 

not  returned  to  that  high  standard  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  in  which  the  gymnasium,  with  all  its 
facilities  for  healthful  exercise,  formed  as  invari- 
able a  part  of  the  city  development  as  the  market 
place  or  the  dwelling  house  itself.  We  shall  be 
forced  back  to  some  such  standard  by  and  by.  The 
time  will  come  when  every  large  office  building  and 
apartment  house  will  have  its  gymnasium  on  the 
roof,  to  serve  as  the  road  to  health  for  young  and 
old  of  both  sexes.  But  in  the  meantime,  accepting 
conditions  as  they  are,  it  is  true  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  people  have  no  opportunity  to  visit  a 
gymnasium  and  must  secure  exercise  in  their  own 
homes  or  not  at  all. 

Fortunately  it  is  possible  to  secure  all  the  exer- 
cise that  health  requires  without  leaving  one's  own 
bedroom,  and  without  the  use  of  any  parapher- 
nalia whatever. 

All  that  is  necessary  is  to  select  a  few  intelli- 
gently devised  exercises  and  to  follow  them  up 
persistently  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  every 
morning  on  first  rising.  If  you  will  put  yourself 
through  a  routine  of  ten  or  a  dozen  simple  move- 
ments, aimed  to  bring  into  action  the  muscles 
which  your  ordinary  occupation  leaves  undevel- 
oped, you  may  secure  many  of  the  direct  physical 
benefits  of  out-of-door  games  or  gymnasium  exer- 
cises without  further  encroachment  on  your  time 
or  business  activities. 

The  muscles  in  question,  in  the  case  of  ninety- 
nine  persons  in  a  hundred  of  sedentary  habits,  are 
those  of  the  abdominal  wall. 


266  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

As  you  sit  at  your  desk  these  muscles  are  re- 
laxed, and  they  are  brought  but  slightly  into  action 
by 'ordinary  walking  or  by  even  a  fairly  vigorous 
action  of  the  arms.  So  the  muscles  that  should 
give  strong  support  to  the  abdominal  wall  become 
a  mere  film  of  relaxed  and  ineffective  tissues, 
padded  with  useless  layers  of  fat.  The  all-impor- 
tant abdominal  viscera  not  only  lack  normal  sup- 
port, but  they  are  encroached  upon  and  crowded 
out  of  place  by  masses  of  adipose  tissue  that  sub- 
serve no  useful  function. 

The  person  of  distended  waist  line  suffers  from 
shortness  of  breath,  not  necessarily  because  his 
lungs  or  heart  are  affected,  but  because  the  adi- 
pose tissue  crowds  the  liver  and  other  viscera 
into  the  thorax,  thus  restricting  the  breathing 
space.  But  the  deposit  of  excessive  quantities  of 
fat  is  in  itself  evidence  of  defective  circulation  of 
the  blood;  and  unless  the  condition  is  corrected, 
there  is  a  tendency  to  weaken  the  heart,  further 
interfering  with  the  circulation  and  facilitating 
thus  the  degenerative  changes  which  lead  to  ar- 
terio-scelerosis  with  its  all  too  familiar  attendant 
evils. 

But  no  one  need  suffer  from  such  degenerated 
abdominal  muscles,  or  from  such  accumulation  of 
fat  in  the  region  of  the  waist,  if  he  has  the  intelli- 
gence and  the  strength  of  mind  to  follow  a  sys- 
tematic line  of  exercises  aimed  to  keep  the  abdomi- 
nal wall  in  a  state  of  healthful  efficiency;  assum- 
ing always  that  at  the  same  time  he  will  practice 
reasonable  self-restraint  in  eating. 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  267 

Treating  the  Abdominal  Muscles 

Anyone  can  devise  exercises  that  will  bring  the 
abdominal  muscles  into  action,  but  unless  you  have 
a  definite  programme  you  are  likely  to  exercise  in 
so  desultory  and  haphazard  a  manner  as  to  fail  to 
get  the  best  results. 

It  is  worth  while,  then,  to  outline  a  definite 
series  of  exercises,  aimed  at  all-round  development 
of  the  abdominal  muscles,  which  may  be  performed 
in  your  own  bedroom,  and  which  will  bring  into 
action  the  entire  series  of  neglected  muscles,  cause 
the  absorption  of  adipose  tissue,  and  give  a  health- 
ful stimulus  to  heart,  lungs,  and  abdominal  vis- 
cera. Try  these  for  a  few  mornings,  just  as  an  ex- 
periment. 

Position  A.    Lie  flat  on  the  back,  on  bed  or  car- 
pet, with  hands  over  your  head. 
Exercise  1.    Body  rigid,  knees  stiff.    Eaise 
right  leg  as  far  as  possible,  exhaling,  knee 
still  rigid ;  left  leg  also  rigid,  heel  press- 
ing down.   Lower  right  leg  till  heel  almost 
touches.    Repeat  several  times. 
Exercise  2.    Same  as  exercise  1,  using  left 

leg  instead  of  right. 
Exercise  3.    Same  motion,  using  both  legs, 

knees  still  rigid,  and  feet  together. 
Exercise  4.  Eaise  and  lower  legs  alter- 
nately, bending  the  knees,  and  bringing 
thighs  full  against  the  chest,  and  then  ex- 
tending as  if  trying  to  run  through  the 
air. 


B  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Position  B.  Stand  erect,  feet  and  knees  to- 
gether; arms  extended  sidewise  on  level  with 
shoulders;  joints  of  shoulders,  elbows,  and 
knees  rigid. 

Exercise  5.  Pivot  body  back  and  forth, 
swinging  arms  in  half  circle,  without 
moving  feet ;  thus  bringing  all  the  action 
on  the  waist-muscles. 

Exercise  6.  Start  from  Position  B,  bend 
right  and  left  as  far  as  possible,  arms  al- 
ways in  line,  right  ascending  as  left  de- 
scends, each  alternately  rising  above  the 
head  and  coming  close  to  the  thigh ;  face 
turned  to  look  first  at  one  hand  and  then 
at  the  other.  Be  sure  to  maintain  rigidity 
of  elbows,  shoulders,  and  legs,  so  that  all 
the  action  comes  on  muscles  at  the  sides 
of  the  abdomen. 

Position  C.  Standing,  feet  apart,  knees  bent, 
hands  at  sides. 

Exercise  7.  Swing  arms  high  above  head 
and  as  far  back  as  possible,  inhaling; 
swing  forward,  bending  body  and  reach- 
ing back  between  the  legs  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, exhaling.  Eyes  follow  hands  at  all 
times.  The  front  abdominal  muscles  and 
muscles  of  the  back  are  brought  into 
vigorous  action. 

Position  D.  Stand  erect,  feet  together  at  the 
heels,  toes  at  right  angles,  arms  flexed  against 
chest. 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  269 

Exercise  8.  Raise  hands  high  above  the 
head,  inhaling.  Lunge  forward  with  left 
foot,  at  right  angles  to  right  foot;  left 
leg  bent,  right  leg  rigidly  straight 
throughout  the  exercise.  Face  and 
shoulders  in  direction  of  left  foot,  thus 
bringing  strain  on  abdominal  muscles  of 
right  side.  Stoop  forward  and  touch  floor 
with  clinched  fists  in  front  of  left  foot,  ex- 
haling; resume  original  position  of  body, 
inhaling,  bringing  right  arm  to  chest 
without  altering  position  of  legs  and  left 
arm. 

Exercise  9.  Same  as  number  8,  but  making 
lunge  with  right  leg. 

Exercise  10.  Same  position  and  exercise  as 
8,  except  that  both  fists  are  brought  to  the 
floor  simultaneously  in  front  of  left  foot, 
and  both  raised  to  the  shoulder  (always 
with  body  strongly  turned  so  that  the  face 
is  straight  in  line  with  left  foot). 

Exercise  11.  Same  as  10,  with  legs  re- 
versed. 

Exercise  12.  Begins  like  exercise  10,  but  as 
hands  are  brought  to  the  shoulder  after 
touching  the  floor,  the  left  leg  is  brought 
back  into  original  position  D,  heel  to  heel, 
and  the  arms  then  lifted  above  the  head, 
inhaling.  Lunge  forward  again  with  left 
foot,  keeping  hands  still  high  in  air.  Then 
stoop,  exhaling,  and  touching  fists  to  floor 
in  front  of  left  foot  as  before. 


270  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

Exercise  13.    Same  as  12,  but  lunging  with 

right  foot  instead  of  left. 

Position  E.    Stand  erect,  feet  together,  knees 
rigid. 

Exercise  14.  Bend  forward,  without  bend- 
ing the  knees,  and  touch  toes;  resume 
erect  position. 

Exercise  15.  Erect  in  Position  E.  Bend 
forward  till  your  hands  touch  the  floor; 
walk  forward  on  hands,  without  moving 
feet,  until  body  is  fully  extended,  quad- 
ruped fashion,  on  hands  and  toes;  legs 
and  body  rigid.  Lower  body  till  the  chest 
(but  not  the  abdomen)  almost  touches 
the  floor;  raise  by  power  of  the  arms; 
hold  the  arms  rigid,  hands  on  floor,  and 
walk  forward  till  feet  come  between  the 
hands;  then  raise  to  standing  position. 
Face  about  and  repeat.  This  exercise 
puts  a  strain  on  the  abdominal  muscles 
that  will  surprise  you  when  you  first  test 
it. 

Of  course  each  of  these  exercises  should  be  re- 
peated several  times ;  the  exact  number  depending 
altogether  on  your  physical  condition.  You  may 
begin  with  two  or  three  repetitions,  and  go  on 
adding  one  or  two  daily  till  you  repeat  each  exer- 
cise fifteen  or  twenty  times.  To  go  through  the 
entire  series,  repeating  each  exercise  twenty 
times,  requires  less  than  fifteen  minutes;  and  if 
you  will  persevere  you  will  come  presently,  as 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  271 

your  muscles  gain  tone,  to  find  actual  pleasure  in 
the  work. 

Trading  Hours  for  Years 

Unless  you  have  a  definite  programme  you  are 
likely  to  exercise  in  so  desultory  and  haphazard  a 
manner  as  to  fail  to  get  the  best  results.  It  is  es- 
sential to  outline  a  definite  series  of  exercises  and 
follow  them  up  systematically.  The  series  just 
suggested,  aimed  at  all-round  development  of  the 
abdominal  muscles,  is  practised  and  recommended 
by  George  Bothner,  whose  wonderful  symmetry  of 
development  attests  the  excellence  of  his  methods 
of  training. 

Such  a  series  of  home  exercises,  combined  with  a 
rational  dietary,  will  do  wonders  toward  keeping 
you  in  health. 

If  you  will  persevere,  I  repeat,  you  will  come, 
as  your  muscles  gain  tone,  to  find  actual  pleasure 
in  the  work.  But  the  great  difficulty  is  to  get  a 
really  good  start.  If  your  system  has  been  allowed 
to  get  very  greatly  out  of  repair,  you  may  not  have 
the  will  power  to  carry  out  a  really  effective  course 
of  gymnastics  at  home.  You  will  need  the  stimulus 
of  gymnasium  associates,  and  the  dominating  in- 
fluence of  a  trainer. 

If  you  are  corpulent,  it  will  stimulate  arid  en- 
courage you  to  see  men  reduced,  by  a  simple  sys- 
tem of  gymnastics  and  gymnasium  games  regu- 
larly carried  out,  from  say  240  pounds  in  weight  to 
a  normal  weight  of  160. 

When  you  see  that  such  a  transformation  is  not 


272  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

only  possible  but  a  moral  certainty  under  proper 
training,  you  will  be  encouraged  to  go  ahead  with 
vigor  on  the  same  road  to  health. 

To  get  such  results,  however,  it  is  necessary 
to  exercise  with  such  vigor  as  to  cause  profuse 
perspiration,  and  to  induce  a  measure  of  fatigue. 
And  the  exercises  should  be  conducted  under 
judicious  guidance,  partly  to  insure  their 
adequacy,  partly  to  guard  against  excess. 

The  regeneration  effected  by  even  a  brief  period 
of  rational  training  is  sometimes  almost  magical. 

As  a  typical  instance,  let  me  cite  the  case  of  a 
man  who  had  sojourned  three  weeks  at  Brown's 
physical  culture  institution  (Pine  Hill  Farm),  at 
Garrison  on  the  Hudson,  near  New  York.  He 
came  to  the  institution  corpulent  and  flabby  of 
muscle,  and  suffering  from  "  nervous  insomnia 
and  nervous  indigestion  ";  when  he  went  away  he 
was  thirty  pounds  lighter,  his  indigestion  had  dis- 
appeared, and,  at  home,  he  reported  himself  able 
to  sleep  early  and  late,  oblivious  to  the  sound  of 
"  poker  parties  and  piano  players  in  the  neigh- 
boring apartments,"  and  of  trolley  cars  and  early 
morning  trucks. 

In  a  letter  written  sometime  later  he  says : 

"  I  am  living  for  the  first  time  in  several  years. 
I  am  able  to  do  more  and  better  work  with  less 
strain  that  in  many  years.  I  wish  that  many  busi- 
ness men  whom  I  know,  and  the  thousands  whom  I 
do  not  know,  who  let  themselves  get  out  of  con- 
dition and  who  become  physically  unfit,  and  more 
or  less  affected  with  neurasthenia,  on  account  of 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  273 

overwork,  lack  of  exercise,  and  too  much  eating 
and  drinking,  could  possibly  realize  how  good  it 
feels  to  be  alive  and  in  first-class  condition.  I  am 
certain  that  if  they  did  they  would  let  their  busi- 
ness wait  and  '  beat  it '  for  a  place  where  they  can 
get  themselves  in  shape.  From  my  own  experi- 
ence I  feel  confident  that  there  is  no  investment  in 
the  world  that  would  be  so  beneficial  or  worth  so 
much." 

Such  an  admonition,  born  of  experience,  de- 
serves your  careful  consideration. 

You  are  too  busy  to  follow  such  advice  you  say. 
The  excuse  is  a  common  one.  But  the  time  will 
come  when  you  will  cease  to  indulge  that  particular 
sophistry.  As  you  feel  your  powers  failing,  you 
will  realize  that  your  work  is  not  fully  accom- 
plished ;  that  it  is  good  to  go  on  a  few  years  more 
in  this  wonderful  world.  Then  you  will  seek  ad- 
vice about  means  to  prolong  your  life.  You  will 
wonder  if  exercise  would  not  be  "  good  for  you." 

But  if  you  delay  too  long  you  may  then  be 
answered  as  was  an  American  millionaire  well- 
known  in  the  world  of  high  finance,  who  at  the  age 
of  about  sixty  sought  a  medical  specialist  to  ask 
the  same  question.  After  examining  him  the  spec- 
ialist said  something  like  this : 

11  You  say,  Mr.  X.,  that  someone  has  advised 
you  to  exercise.  That  would  have  been  admirable 
advice  ten  or  twenty  years  ago.  But  you  have  lived 
so  long  without  exercise,  have  permitted  your  tis- 
sues to  get  into  such  a  state  of  disrepair  and  de- 
generation, that  is  is  now  too  late  to  hope  to  re- 


274  Adding  Years  to  Your  Life 

store  them  to  activity.  You  can  only  conserve  the 
small  measure  of  physical  strength  that  you  retain. 
Do  not  exercise.  Take  a  taxi  even  if  you  have  to 
go  only  a  few  blocks.  Save  all  your  strength  and 
keep  the  machine  going  at  low  speed  as  long  as 
you  can." 

To  a  friend  the  doctor  said  afterward  that  if  Mr. 
X.  had  begun  to  exercise  at  the  right  age  and  had 
taken  proper  care  of  his  originally  good  con- 
stitution, he  might  very  well  have  hoped  to  live  to 
be  eighty,  instead  of  dying,  as  he  did,  at  sixty-five. 
Half  an  hour  a  day  of  the  right  sort  of  exercise  at 
the  right  time  would  probably  have  insured  him  an 
additional  ten  or  twenty  years  of  life ;  but  all  his 
millions  could  not  restore  the  lost  opportunity  or 
purchase  for  the  financier  an  added  hour. 

And  this  case  is  absolutely  typical.  Such  de- 
generation of  the  tissues  as  that  which  took  the 
financier  prematurely  from  the  scene  of  his  labors 
causes  probably  a  majority  of  all  deaths  of  those 
who  live  beyond  forty.  After  middle  life  we  have 
fought  off  the  virulent  microbes,  our  systems  are 
largely  immune  to  them;  and  the  bodily  machine 
wears  out,  like  any  other  machine,  more  or  less 
rapidly,  according  to  the  care  that  is  taken  of  it. 

Even  pneumonia,  that  arch-enemy  of  the  aged, 
is  not  primarily  a  germ  disease.  But  for  the  low- 
ered vitality  of  the  body,  due  to  sluggish  function- 
ing of  the  tissues  in  general  and  slackening  heart 
action,  the  microbes,  even  if  lodged  in  the  lungs, 
would  not  be  able  to  develop  there. 

The  great  difficulty  is  that  most  people  cannot  be 


Adding  Years  to  Your  Life  275 

induced  to  shut  the  barn  door  until  after  the  horse 
is  stolen.  If  this  was  true  of  a  man  of  business 
acumen  and  foresight,  like  the  financier  whose 
case  was  just  cited,  what  can  be  expected  of  the 
ordinary  mortal?  At  any  rate,  if  you  have  read 
these  pages,  you  are  forewarned  and  if  you  elect  to 
live  a  short  and  inactive  life  rather  than  to  make 
bid  for  a  long  and  active  one,  you  at  least  make 
the  choice  knowingly. 


INDEX 


Adding    Years    to    Your    Life, 

Chapter  IX,  245. 
Age,  the  teat  of,  245. 
Alcohol,  a  depressant  to  be 

avoided,  64; 

its  effect  on  the  brain,  100 ; 
how  it  mars  the  brain,  111. 
Anaphylaxis,     protein,     as     a 

cause  of  disease,  250. 
Ancestors,  their  great  number, 

185; 

and  marriage  partners,  188; 
should  be  studied  in  the  in- 
terests of  posterity,  210. 
Antitoxins,  how  prepared  and 

how  they  operate,  56. 
Aphasia,  due  to  brain  injury, 

122. 
Are    Your    Nerves    in    Tune? 

Chapter  V,  117. 
Assimilation,     how     controlled 

by  the  sympathetic  system, 

124. 
Asylums,   for  the  insane,   now 

commonly  called  hospitals, 

102. 

Bacillus  of  long  life,  its  alleged 

action,  17. 

Bacteria,  grow  by  billions   on 
mucous  surfaces,  32; 

hostile,  how  preventive  medi- 
cine is  grappling  with 
them,  34; 

cause  the  great  majority  of 
all  deaths,  43; 

their  classification  and  mi- 
nute size,  44; 

how  the  body  is  guarded 
against  them,  48; 

the  streptococcus  one  of 
man's  deadliest  enemies, 
48; 


Bacteria,  their  rapid  multipli- 
cation, 52; 
some  rules  for  evading  them, 

60; 

number  permissible  in  whole- 
some milk,  68. 

Balliet,  Dean  Thomas  M.,  heads 
a  committee  to  report  on 
teaching  of  sex  hygiene, 
236. 

Barker,  Dr.  Lewellys  F.,  out- 
lines objects  of  the  Na- 
tional Committee  for  Men- 
tal Hygiene,  94; 
comments  on  the  permanent 
ill-effects  of  faulty  feeding 
of  infants,  219. 

Bath,  the,  as  a  therapeutic 
measure,  63. 

Battle  of  the  Microbes,  The, 
Chapter  II,  40. 

Bedbug,   the   ubiquitous,    as    a 

carrier  of  disease,  89; 
may  be  destroyed  by  fumigat- 
ing the  house,  92. 

Beers,  Mr.  Clifford  W.,  his 
crusade  for  the  prevention 
of  insanity,  95. 

Behring,  Dr.  Emil  von,  de- 
velops the  diphtheria  anti- 
toxin, 57. 

Biffin,  Professor  R.  F.,  de- 
velops new  races  of  wheat, 
205. 

Binet  tests,  show  high  percent- 
age of  children  below  the 
normal  standard,  190. 

Binet-Simon  tests  of  the  age  of 
children  explained,  224. 

Bird,  the,  has  double  vision, 
161. 

Bishop,  Dr.  L.  F.,  his  studies  of 
food  poisons,  250. 


277 


278 


Index 


"Black  Death,"  a  name  given 
to  the  plague  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  73. 

Blood  corpuscles,  white,  how 
they  protect  the  body  by 
attacking  bacteria,  49; 

named  phagocytes,  or  cell- 
eaters,  by  Professor  Metch- 
nikoff,  50; 

details  of  their  combat  with 

the  disease  germs,  54. 
Blood    poisoning,    due    to    mi- 

crobic  infection,  47. 
Blood  pressure,  what  it  shows, 

257. 
Blood-stream,  the  battle  in  the, 

50. 

Body,  the  human,  likened  to  a 
city,  25; 

as  a  fortified  castle,  48. 
Brain,  why  it  is   so  often   an 
inefficient  organ   of   mind, 
99; 

the  mind  depends  absolutely 
upon  it,  109; 

abnormalities  that  are  in- 
curable when  developed 
may  be  preventable,  110; 

how  marred  by  alcohol,  111; 

how  marred  by  syphilis,  114; 

as  centre  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem, 120; 

the  brain  mechanism,  121; 

how  it  is  imposed  upon,  132 ; 

disturbed  by  mal-nutrition, 
overwork,  worry,  and 
bursts  of  emotion,  135; 

as  a  phonograph,  145; 

its  records  are  permanent, 
148; 

its  training  cannot  be  begun 
too  early,  151; 

of  the  child,  indelibly  marked 
by  early  experiences,  221. 
Brown,  Dr.  J.  S.,  leads  a  cru- 
sade for  pure  milk  in  Mont- 
clair,  68. 

Bulgaria,  peasants  of,  their 
longevity  ascribed  by 
Metchnikoff  to  their  sour- 
milk  diet,  16. 


Burbnnk,  Luther,  independent 
discoveries  in  heredity, 
204. 

Burrows,  Dr.  Montrose  T.,  his 
experiments  with  Dr.  Car- 
rel in  growing  tissues  out- 
side the  body,  30. 

Can  You  See  Straight?  Chapter 
VI,  153. 

Carrel,  Dr.  Alexis,  his  experi- 
ments with  Dr.  Burrows  in 
growing  tissues  outside  the 
body,  30; 

studies  the  effect  of  different 
foodstuffs  on  cell  growth, 
36. 

Castle,  Professor  William  E., 
his  experiments  with 
guinea  pigs,  188. 

Cells,  living,  how  they  build  up 

the  organism,  24; 
Dr.  Carrel  studies  their  needs, 

36; 

aided  by  the  sympathetic 
nervous  system,  128. 

Children,  do  you  choose  them? 
Chapter  VII,  181. 

Children,  "exceptional,"  their 
large  number  as  deter- 
mined by  the  Binet  tests, 
190. 

Children,  give  them  a  chance, 
Chapter  VIII,  213. 

Children,     timidity     of,     some- 
times due  to  organic  dis- 
ease, 222; 
actual     age    versus     mental 

age,  223; 

the  value  of  right  hygiene  in 
giving  health  and  normal- 
ity, 227; 
moral  training  of,  232. 

Chowning,  Dr.,  in  association 
with  Dr.  Wilson,  suggests 
that  the  wood-tick  trans- 
mits Rocky  Mountain  spot- 
ted fever,  86. 

City,  the  modern,  has  lower 
death-rate  than  the  coun- 
try, 28. 


Index 


279 


Clark,  Dr.  Ernest,  urges  the 
safeguarding  of  the  child's 
eyes,  175; 

regards  insomnia  as  a  com- 
mon symptom  of  eye-strain, 
177. 

Consumption,  causes  ten  per 
cent  of  all  deaths,  40. 

Cousins,  the  marriage  of,  195; 
the  marriage  of,  instances  of 
harmful     effects     through 
heredity,  197; 

the  marriage  of,  not  neces- 
s  a  r  i  1  y  disadvantageous, 
198. 

Davenport,  Professor  C.  B.,  on 
marriage  of  persons  having 
susceptibility  to  tubercu- 
losis, 192; 

his  collection  of  human  pedi- 
grees, 205. 

Deaf-mutism,  in  relation  to 
heredity,  196. 

Degenerative  diseases  on  the 
increase,  248. 

Diet,   its   great  importance  in 

prolonging  life,  38; 
a  rational,  259. 

Digestion  and  assimilation,  how 
controlled  by  sympathetic 
system,  124. 

Do  You  Choose  Your  Children? 
Chapter  VII,  181. 

Eating  to  live,  259. 

Ehrlich,  Professor  Paul,  his 
new  remedy  for  syphilis, 
35; 

attempts  to  perfect  a  remedy 
for  sleeping  sickness,  88. 

Emerson,  Mr.  Harrington,  illus- 
trates the  need  of  psycho- 
logical tests  to  determine 
business  fitness,  138. 

Environment  vs.  heredity,  182. 

Epilepsy,  due  to  lack  of  cerebal 
control,  123. 

Eugenics.  See  Chapter  VII,  Do 
You  Choose  Your  Children? 
181. 


Eugenics  Record  Office,  at  Cold 
Spring  Harbor,  its  work  in 
tracing  genealogical  rec- 
ords, 211. 

Evolution,  determined  by  mat- 
ing selections,  186. 
Exercise,  its  value  in  promot- 
ing longevity,  38; 
the  sovereign  remedy,  262. 
Exercises,  a  system  of,  for  home 

use,  267. 
Eye,  the,  compared  to  a  camera, 

155; 
defects    that    we    nearly    all 

have,  166; 

secondary     effects     of     eye- 
strain,  166; 

defects,  very  heritable,  194. 
Eyes,  primitive,  how  they  func- 
tionate, 157 ; 
of  lower  animals,  159; 
out  of  focus,  164; 
of  crustaceans,   are  replaced 

if  destroyed,  165; 
how  tested,  167; 
how  to  take  care  of,  169; 
guarding    the    eyes    of    the 

child,  174; 

small  defects  are  most  dan- 
gerous, 176; 

of  the   child,    should   be   ex- 
amined   by    oculist    from 
time  to  time,  180. 
Eye-strain,  may  cause  various 

maladies,  153; 
how  influenced  by  occupation, 

171; 
due    to    defective    light    and 

desks  in  school,  177. 
Eye  surgery,  some  remarkable 
operations,  153. 

Finlay,  Dr.  Charles  J.,  early 
advocated  the  theory  that 
yellow  fever  is  transmitted 
l>y  mosquitoes,  79. 

Fisher,  Professor  Irving,  esti- 
mates that  six  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  pre- 
ventable deaths  occur  in 
America  each  year,  42. 


280 


Index 


Flea,    the,    a    carrier    of    the 

plague,  72. 

Fly,  the  house,  as  a  carrier  of 
disease,  71; 

more  destructive  than  bullets 
in  the  Cuban  War,  81 ; 

re-christened  the  "  typhoid 
fly"  by  Dr.  L.  O.  Howard, 
81; 

how  it  transports  disease 
germs,  82; 

its  extreme  fecundity,  83; 

protection    against,    by    hy- 
gienic measures,  83. 
Foods,  their  chemical  composi- 
tion, 19; 

a    scientific    study    of    their 

qualities  made  possible  by 

D-.    Carrel's    experiments, 

37. 

Fuel,  for  the  bodily  engine,  254. 

Give  Your  Children  a  Chance, 

Chapter  VIII,  213. 
Glycobacterium,    the    "bacillus 

of    long    life,"    discovered 

at    the    Pasteur    Institute, 

17. 
Goddard,  Dr.  H.  H.,  his  study 

of  defectives,  203; 
applies  Binet-Simon  tests  to 

school     children     in     New 

York,  225. 

Gould,     Dr.     George    W.,     as- 
cribes many  infirmities  to 

eye-strain,  172. 
"Great     Mortality,"     a    name 

given  to  the  plague  in  the 

Middle  Ages,  73. 
Growing   old,    an    unexplained 

mystery,  15. 
Growing    tissues     outside    the 

body,  29. 
Guests  that  shorten  our  lives, 

32. 
Guinea  pig,  used  to  illustrate 

laws  of  heredity,  187; 
further    illustrations   of    the 

laws  of  heredity,  200. 
Gymnasium,  as  an  aid  to  long 

life,  264. 


Hall,  President  G.  Stanley,  de- 
clares that  there  is  a  new 
interest  in  children  in  our 
generation,  220. 

Harrington,  Dr.  Thomas  F.,  em- 
phasizes the  value  of  moth- 
er's milk  in  feeding  the 
infant,  217. 

Health,  some  rules  for  its  main- 
tenance, 60. 

Heart,  fragments  of  its  tissue 
may  continue  to  beat  for 
some  months  after  removal, 
31. 

Heart  disease,  a  heritable  mal- 
ady, 193. 

Heredity,  the  new  knowledge  of, 

184; 

the  same  laws  apply  to  ani- 
mal and  man,  200. 

Hewitt,  Mr.  Peter  Cooper,  his 
quartz  lamp  destroys  bac- 
teria, 65. 

Howard,  Dr.  L.  O.,  gives  the 
house-fly  the  name  "  ty- 
phoid fly,"  81. 

Individual,  the,  and  the  race, 
198. 

Indols,  their  presence  in  the  in- 
testinal tract  believed  to  be 
deleterious,  18. 

Infants,  handicapped  by  im- 
proper feeding,  217. 

Inheritance,  from  remote  ances- 
tors, 182;  189; 
of  eye  defects,  194; 
of  good  health,  202. 

Insane,   the,   about  200,000   in 
institutions  in  the  United 
States,   101.; 
cost   of   maintenance   in  the 

United  States,  102; 
recent  reforms  in  their  treat- 
ment,  103. 

Insects,  how  they  transmit  dis- 
ease germs,  53. 

Insomnia,  often  due  to  eye- 
strain,  177. 

Introspection,  as  a  means  of 
self-betterment,  145. 


Index 


281 


Is  Your  Brain  All  Right?  Chap- 
ter IV,  93. 

James,  Professor  William,  his 
characterization  of  Mr. 
Beers'  book,  95. 

Jenner,  Dr.  Edward,  controlled 
smallpox  by  vaccination, 
40. 

Jennings,  Professor  H.  S., 
shows  that  protozoa  may 
be  kept  in  health  for  thou- 
sands of  generations,  23; 
believes  that  artificial  condi- 
tions in  the  body  make  in- 
definite existence  impos- 
sible, 26. 

Jordan,  Dr.  E.  O.,  estimates  the 
rate  of  development  of  bac- 
teria, 52. 

Kilborne,  Dr.,  in  association 
with  Dr.  Smith,  proved 
that  the  tick  transmits 
Texas  fever  in  cattle,  86. 

King,  Dr.  A.  F.  A.,  first  sug- 
gested that  the  mosquito 
may  transmit  malaria,  78. 

Laboratory,  the  psychological, 
how  it  may  aid  the  work- 
shop, 141. 

Lazear,  Dr.,  with  Drs.  Reed, 
Carroll,  and  Agramonte, 
demonstrated  that  a  mos- 
quito transmits  yellow 
fever,  80. 

Lens,  the  crystalline,  its  func- 
tion in  the  eye,  156. 

Light,  the  best  for  reading,  171. 

Listerism,  how  it  has  changed 
surgery,  55. 

McClintic,  Dr.  T.  B.,  a  martyr 
in  the  cause  of  science,  86. 

Machine,  the  animal,  252. 

Malaria,  due  to  a  germ  called  a 

Plasmodium  77; 
transmitted    by    mosquitoes, 

Marriage  partners,  the  all-im- 


portance of  a  right  selec- 
tion, 189; 
Marriage      salvation      through 

wise  selection  of,  206. 
Maupas,  Professor,  his  experi- 
ments with  protozoa,  22. 
Meltzer,  Dr.   S.   J.,   kills   dogs 

and  restores  them  to  life 

by  artificial  respiration,  31. 

Memory,  its  usual  defects,  98; 

how   explained    in    terms    of 

brain  activity,  122. 
Mendel,  Gregor,  his  studies  of 

heredity     rediscovered     by 

Professor  de  Vries,  204. 
Mendelian  heredity,  204; 

applied  to  the  human  subject, 

202,  207. 
Mental  Hygiene  Conference  and 

Exhibit,  in  New  York  City, 

93. 
Mental    hygiene,    its    meaning 

and  value,  108. 
Mentally  wavering,  first  aid  to 

the,  105. 
Messengers  of  Death  and  How 

to  Outwit  Them,   Chapter 

III,  71. 
Metchnikoff,      Professor      Elie, 

proves    that    white    blood 

corpuscles  destroy  bacteria, 

16; 
gives  the  name  phagocytes  to 

the  white  blood  corpuscles, 

50. 
Microbes,    The    Battle    of    the, 

Chapter  II,  40. 
Microbes,  fifty  different  species 

or  varieties  may  exist  in 

the  mouth,  44; 
seemingly  friendly  ones  some- 
times harmful,  46; 
destroyed  by  sunlight,  64. 
Milk,  alleged  value  of  sour  in 

prolonging  life,  17; 
purified  by  quartz  lamp,  65; 
bacteria  in,  68; 
its    rapid   contamination    by 

bacteria,  69; 
pasteurization    of,    increases 

its  purity,  70. 


282 


Index 


Mind,  the,  its  dependence  on 
the  brain,  109. 

Minot,  Professor  Sedgwick,  be- 
lieves that  multi-cellular 
organisms  cannot  live  in- 
definitely, 27. 

Mortality,  is  it  the  price  of 
cellular  differentiation? 
26; 

of  infants,  amounts  to  forty 
thousand  daily,  42. 

Mortality  rate,  infants',  reduced 
fifty  per  cent  by  pasteur- 
ized milk,  70. 

Mosquito,  the  yellow  fever,  79. 

Mosquitoes  and  malaria,  76. 

Mlinsterberg,  Professor  Hugo, 
•would  apply  laboratory 
methods  to  determine  fit- 
ness for  various  callings, 
139. 

Muscles,  how  controlled  by  the 
brain,  123. 

National  Committee  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  its  aims  and  ob- 
jects, 94. 

Nature  versus  nurture,  227. 

Negro  population,  the  possible 
menace  from,  209. 

Nerves,  Are  Your  Nerves  in 
Tune?  Chapter  V,  117. 

Nervous  system,  the  .  sympa- 
thetic, its  functions,  124. 

Nervous  systems,  the  two,  and 

their  functions,  117; 
likened   to   a   telephone   sys- 
tem, 118. 

Nott,  Dr.,  early  suggested  that 
the  mosquito  may  transmit 
yellow  fever,  79. 

Nurture  versus  nature,  227. 

Nuttall,  Dr.  G.  H.  F.,  makes 
extensive  study  of  ticks  as 
germ  carriers,  87. 

Old  Age,  The  Duel  with,  Chap- 
ter I,  15. 

Old  age,  examples  of  men  who 
have  evaded  its  effects  by 
right  living,  39. 


Ophthalmoscope,  for  testing  the 
eye,  invented  by  Helmholtz, 
167. 

"  Opsonin,"  discovered  by  Sir 
Almroth  Wright,  58. 

Organism,  of  man,  like  that  of 
all  other  animals  built  ex- 
clusively of  cells,  23. 

Panama  Canal  Zone,  made  sa- 
lubrious by  Colonel  Gor- 
gas,  80. 

Paracelsus,  medieval  alchem- 
ist, believed  that  all  foods 
contained  elements  of  poi- 
son, 18. 

Paton,  Dr.  Stewart,  prepared 
Mental  Hygiene  Exhibit, 

no 

Patton,  Dr.,  shows  that  "  kala 
azar"  may  be  transmitted 
by  the  bedbug,  89. 

Personality,  building  a  new, 
150. 

Peterson,  Dr.  Frederick,  testa 
the  unconscious  and  sub- 
conscious mentality,  149. 

Phenols,  their  presence  in  the 
intestinal  tract  believed  to 
be  deleterious,  18. 

Phonograph,  the  brain  com- 
pared with,  145. 

Physical  culture,  regeneration 
through,  272. 

Plague,  the,  transmitted  by  the 

flea,  72; 

at  our  doors,  72; 
its    dissemination    in    recent 

years,  74; 

may  be  transmitted  by  the 
bedbug  as  well  as  by  the 
flea,  89. 

Playground  versus  schoolroom, 
229. 

Pneumonia,  how  to  avoid  it,  62. 

Poisoning,  due  to  the  retention 
of  organic  compounds,  be- 
lieved by  Metchnikoff  to 
cause  senility,  20. 

Proteid  foods,  may  cause  brit- 
tle arteries,  246. 


Index 


283 


Protein,  the  amount  required 
daily,  259. 

Protein  poisoning,  how  it  may 
affect  the  organism,  256. 

Protozoan,   its    alleged    immor- 
tality, 20; 
method  of  reproduction,  21. 

Psychiatric  clinics,  at  Johns- 
Hopkins  and  elsewhere, 
105. 

Psychology,  how  it  may  aid  in 
selecting  a  business,  139. 

Rat,  the,  transmits  the  plague, 
74. 

Refraction,  errors  of,  what  tfcey 
mean  and  what  they  do, 
155. 

Rickets,  Dr.  H.  T.,  demonstrates 
that  the  wood-tick  trans- 
mits Rocky  Mountain  spot- 
ted fever,  86. 

Rocky  Mountain  fever,  trans- 
mitted by  the  wood-tick,  86. 

Ross,  Dr.  Ronald,  discovered 
that  the  mosquito  trans- 
mits malaria,  78. 

Salmon,  Dr.  Thomas  W.,  direct- 
or of  special  studies  of  the 
National  Committee  for 
Mental  Hygiene,  97; 
asserts  that  the  insane  are 
still  inadequately  cared  for 
in  some  American  com- 
munities, 104. 

School  Hygiene,  meeting  of  the 
Fourth  International  Con- 
gress of,  214. 

Selection,  salvation  through 
wise  selection  of  marriage 
partners,  206. 

Sex  education,  the  need  of,  234 ; 
must  begin  early,  238. 

Single-celled  organisms,  be- 
lieved not  to  die  a  normal 
death,  20. 

Sleep,  necessary  to  restore  ex- 
hausted brain,  135. 

Sleeping  sickness,  transmitted 
by  the  tsetse  fly,  87. 


Smith,  Dr.  Theobald,  in  asso- 
ciation with  Dr.  Kilborne, 
proved  that  the  tick  trans- 
mits Texas  fever  in  cattle, 
86. 

Sunlight,  its  value  in  destroy- 
ing microbes,  64. 

Surgery,  antiseptic  and  aseptic, 
what  it  really  implies,  55. 

Sympathetic  nervous  system, 
its  control  of  the  involun- 
tary functions,  124; 
its  function  likened  to  that 
of  the  commissary  depart- 
ment of  an  army,  129. 

Syphilis,  and  brain  decay,  114. 

Telephone  girls,  suffer  from  eye- 
strain,  173. 

Temperature,  uniform,  of  the 
body,  how  it  is  maintained, 
253. 

Tendencies,  hereditary,  the  con- 
flict of,  187. 

Texas  fever,  a  destructive  cattle 
malady,  due  to  a  protozoal 
germ  transmitted  by  the 
tick,  85. 

Ticks,  and  other  creepers,  how 
they  transmit  disease,  84. 

Tick,  the  wood-,  transmits 
Rocky  Mountain  spotted 
fever,  86. 

Tissues,  living,  grown  oulside 
the  body,  29. 

Tree,  your  family,  191. 

Tuberculosis,  will  some  day  be 
held  in  check  by  an  immu- 
nizing virus,  41 ; 
two  persons  both  susceptible 
to,  should  not  marry,  192. 

Vaccine    treatment,    its    wide 

scope,  58. 
Vaughan,  Professor  Victor   C., 

his  studies  of  food  poisons, 

250. 
Verjbitski,    Dr.    D.    T.,    shows 

that   bubonic   plague   may 

be   transmitted  by  bedbug 

and  flea,  89. 


Index 


Vision,  its  importance  in  build- 
ing up  the  mind,  158; 

binocular,  confined  to  the 
highest  animals  and  man, 
161; 

double,  what  it  accomplishes, 
162. 

Wassermann,  Professor,  A.  von, 
his  attempt  to  develop  a 
cancer  cure,  35. 

Water,  how  to  insure  its  pu- 
rity, 67. 

Weismann,  Professor  August, 
his  theory  that  single-celled 
organisms  live  indefinitely, 
22. 

Welch,  Dr.  William,  instru- 
mental in  securing  endow- 
ment for  a  psychiatric 
clinic,  105. 

Wheeler,  Dr.  John  M.,  his  oper- 
ations on  the  eye,  154. 


Wilson,  Dr.,  in  association  with 
Dr.  Chowning,  suggests 
that  the  wood-tick  trans- 
mits Rocky  Mountain  spot- 
ted fever,  86. 

Woodhead,  Dr.  G.  Sims,  de- 
scribes the  effect  of  alcohol 
on  the  brain,  112. 

Wounds,  even  minor  ones 
should  be  treated  with  re- 
spect, 61. 

Wright,  Sir  Almroth,  discovers 
"  opsinin  "  and  its  function 
in  aiding  the  white  cor- 
puscles, 58; 

his  wide   application   of   the 
vaccine  treatment,  59. 

Yellow  fever,  the  demonstration 
that  it  is  transmitted  by  a 
mosquito  of  the  genus 
Stegomyia  made  by  U.  S. 
Army  surgeons,  80. 


MARGARET   CARNEGIE   LIBRARY 
MILLS  COLLEGE 


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